Maelstrom Effect Book 2: Shadows of Crimson
by godospartan the Kitsune
Summary: After Soverign's defeat, the sibling Commanders left to clean up the mess it left behind. But one of them was struck down by an unknown force. The next 2 years they go in search of the ones responsible, unknowing that a secret group is bringing their sibling back to life to fight the Reapers again. How will they react when they meet again? NaruxTali, Shakarian, Mature content later
1. Shepard Chronicles: Death of a Sibling

**Godo:** Hello everyone, and welcome to Book 2! ~ So, here's the rundown. What you will be seeing is a different start to what the games gave us. We all know what's going to happen here; someone dies falling to the ice world and gets revived by Cerberus. This is going into Mass Effect 2 after all, the most beloved of the series by moderate standards, changing stuff recklessly will make you all very angry at us. But we have surprises galore in store, including… the surviving Commander to go off and be their own solo act for the 2-year gap from the time one dies to the time they get revived. We will not say who died yet, just know that it's gonna be a bit before we actually hit the main story of ME2 due to the 2-year mini-story, in the beginning, that we will be writing beginning today…. OH and Merry Christmas!

**Arch:** Welcome, welcome, welcome back! Of course, we're doing ME2. Naturally. Hope you all like it!

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX ~ xx ~ XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

The bright glow of a star illuminated from a window to a massive dark room. At the center of the room, a dozen or so monitors were ablaze with countless activities going on throughout Citadel space and the Terminus. A lone man sat on a chair as his sapphire cybernetic eyes took in every detail from what he watched.

He was steely, determined, a human man in his mid-years with grayish black hair. He wore a dark blue and white suit. A cigarette lazily rested between his fingers as he took a slow drag, his eyes rested upon a rare interview with Asari councilwoman Tevos; "Naturally they covered up all aspect of Sovereign. Stating it was a Geth invasion is more plausible than a sentient dreadnought bent on our extinction."

"Of course." A melodic feminine English voice quipped in the darkness before a figure came to the man's side. A stunningly beautiful long brunette haired, fair-skinned woman in a tight white leather outfit rested a hand on her shapely hip. "The council, despite all their faults, are not fools. If they had to fully acknowledge the Reapers and tell the populace there would be widespread panic." Her ocean-blue eyes gazed at her boss. "But are you certain we should do this?"

"Absolutely, if I am sure of anything the Council and the other governments will do everything to sweep the Reapers mere existence under the carpet. Make it as it never happened. We will not." The man took a drag from his cigarette as an image appeared of the two human Spectres. "So we will extend a hand to the two individuals I know who can stop the Reapers."

The woman was no so certain; "Given our history Uzumaki and Shepard will likely decline. Especially Uzumaki if he ever learned the truth."

The man's eyes soon peered over to her; "Then we ensure the truth remains hidden. But in a way this will be as close to an apology I can give to him. Kushina was a dear friend once."

"Till she learned what you were doing."

"Which was regrettable, but the past is just that. The past." The man rose from his seat; "There is a lot of work to be done. Let's not waste any more time."

The woman saluted; "Yes sir." Spinning on her heels she walked away as the man moved to the window.

He stared quietly at the glowing red and blue star. "You and sister have a large role to play in the coming future Naruto. And I will ensure humanity will be at the forefront."

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

A loud rumble was silently sucked from existence in the vacuum of space as the Normandy in all its splendor came out of FTL and started patrolling a nearby Terminus system. This late into the crew's cycle had half of them asleep or on break. In the cargo bay, there was a mostly salvaged and put back together Hammerhead vehicle, with Garrus working on the outer shielding systems. "And how's that?"

Sitting on top of the thing, drinking her third cup of coffee, a disheveled Shepard bounced a rubber ball hard on the ceiling of the lower deck and watched it rapidly fall and hit the metal shell again, bouncing back up. "Nope, you sure the thing can be saved? It's been months and you only got the main systems online." She said as she caught the ball again.

"As much work as half the crew and I put on this heap, we're getting this thing operational one way or another." The former C-SEC officer remarked in a determined tone.

A snort came from the redhead with an eye roll; "About as stubborn as Naruto."

Leaning against the wall Wrex observed with an amused gaze; "Given how crazy both of you are, he has to be to keep up."

"Ha, ha..." Emily dryly quipped as she resumed throwing the ball. Coming back to her hands once more she groaned as she popped her next; "I hate late shifts."

"Yeah, they can get trying." Garrus huffed as he did all he could for the shields right now, understanding they needed some parts for shorted wires and maybe even replacements for many other electronic systems. "If you're ready to take your break, you can just get your brother out of his pod."

Tali was running diagnostics on the engine core, having been quiet as she rolled the eezo core gently to get the jumpstart. "He worked double shifts recently; he should get some more sleep." The young Quarian sighed as she remembered how he meticulously helped fix the additional armor segments for her suit, even hunting down replacement seals and making sure everyone had their extra amenities.

On the bridge, Jenkins was currently getting a quick diagnostics from Chakwas, who was also running medical stims for the crew who were running more than their normal shares. "You'll be fine, Corporal. Next time don't arm wrestle a Krogan whilst drunk."

"Yeah, sorry doc. It's not just me though, Adams almost wanted to do it himself, but I beat him to the table." He chuckled nervously. "Next thing I know he's got an apology and more drink ready and I can't think straight enough to say no."

Rolling her eyes, the senior medical officer could only watch the hopelessness of the crew's tensions. "_Naruto told us this was the last one, but I fear the Council will try to throw us out into the next mission right after we report. If we don't let up, the crew will suffer._" Though her thoughts were interrupted as the alarms started blaring. "What's going on?"

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

Joker tapped on his console as he looked out of the window at his side. Coming into view was what looked like an enormous floating rock. But the pilot's sharp eyes saw more as he saw machinery built into it. Never mind it was not floating but rather adjusting to Normandy's speed. "What the hell is that?"

Pressly ran up to the cockpit; "Everything is going off the charts, the energy output of whatever that is, it's immense!"

And Joker took note of how this 'ship' was at least ten times larger than the Normandy. "But is it friendly?" A woman questioned at one of the worksites.

"Does that thing look friendly to you?" Jeff quipped

Checking the combat console, one of the crew started listing some statistics. "Medium cruiser, maybe larger, the energy output is rising, it has a reflective surface as well as external armor in whatever that rock looking stuff is. And it's got an intercept- oh no, it's going to fire!"

"Engaging evasive maneuvers hold on!" Joker picked it up into high gear, engaging engines and running hot, and just as the Normandy started jolting to get out of the way, Joker saw the light of a laser weapon spark from the ship. "Not good! BRACE!"

Without any ability to do so, the crew was rocked by the shockwave as the unidentified ship landed a critical blow on the back of the Normandy, the bright light of its laser cannon cutting off a single engine entirely, and gouging an entire side of the Normandy, the blast causing internal systems to break. As the Normandy recoiled from the first blast, the second came without warning and took out the tail end and one of the stabilizer wings on the other side. The shields and armor didn't stand a chance against this unknown, and vastly well-armed ship.

Inside the Normandy, everything was going wrong, the blasts causing several systems to short and even blow from overload from the power of the cannon, one even blasting the crewman beside Joker, as she was blasted from her seat, Pressly caught her only for the ship to jolt and land him onto the other console, which blew up in his face and killed both him and the woman in his arms, Joker grunting in pain as the force of those explosive overloads cracked a rib. "Hull breaches! Seal any holes on the bridge, and someone put the fires out!" Hissing, he stopped trying to outmaneuver and start trying to divert power from all systems to any shields he could access to protect the populated areas of the ship, and even got the pods opened for anyone now waking up from sleep. "_Wakey, wakey guys, it's time to go!_"

The moment the alarms blared Naruto was on his feet and suiting up in his armor. The blond ran out from the private cabin just as the first attack hit. He grunted as he was flung to the side hitting the wall. "What the hell could cut through our shields so damn easily?!" He questioned aloud before a crew member helped him up; "Who the hell is attacking!?"

"No idea sir!"

A growl came the blond; "Get everyone the escape pods!"

"Yes, sir!" The crew member ran off as Naruto went to check on the sleep pods. Anyone who was sleeping was forced awake by the attack.

Liara grunted as she fell off and hit the ground; "What in the goddesses name is happening." She murmured before being picked up by surprise by Naruto.

"We're under attack, get to an escape pod!" Naruto helped her to her feet and on the guard rail. "I'm sending out the distress beacon; just make sure you get as many as possible out of here!"

He jumped to the communications station and started the protocol. As he did, Liara, whilst shielding herself from the flames of another overloaded system blowing nearby, looked on at him worried. "I'm not leaving here without you!"

"Yes you are, I have to get Joker's crippled butt out of here, he's not gonna make it with all these blasts!" He hit the ship's personnel files and gasped seeing most of the upper bridge was either in their pods waiting to launch, or dead. Mostly ready to launch thankfully.

The ship rocked heavily, making Liara slip down the railing, but Naruto clung strongly to the station he was on. "Naruto!"

Quickly, he grabbed her biotically and got her towards the pods. "Just go! I'll be right behind you guys with joker!" He launched himself from the station to the elevator, only to see it was busted. Getting on his comms he tried his sister, who he knew wasn't in her quarters. "Hey, everything alright down there?!" He watched Liara as she looked worried but nodded and went to go help whoever she could to the pods. He started his way to the upper command deck as Emily answered.

"Engineer crew is being rushed to escape pods!" Shepard's voice coming in a rushed tone. "But everything is breaking apart!"

Naruto let out a curse; "Get everyone down there out." Quickly he moved up the stairs as he put on his helmet. His eyes grew wide as he saw most of the hull destroyed. Through one opening he saw enormousness and strange-looking cruiser. He shook it off as he ran towards the cockpit. There he saw a shield bubble over where Joker was working. Chairs and some dead crew floated, frozen by space.

Knowing now was not the time to mourn the crew, he quickly made his way through the deck, his mag boots active to keep him planted so he did not float off without warning. As he got into the bubble he grabbed the chair. "Joker! Come on, we have to get out of here!"

Deep in his mind, the pilot knew it was lost, the controls were unresponsive, he could see the planet they were heading towards and going to crash on. But in his heart he wanted to keep fighting to pull it back, maybe get it into an orbit. "I can still save the Normandy; I just need enough juice to do it!"

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

Emily, Garrus, and Wrex directed the crew to escape pods as fast their bodies were able. Tali being the last engineer who leaped in as the ship shook. "Oh shit." The ancient Krogan muttered as turned and saw the hull cracking. "Come on!"

The ship cracked open, causing a destabilizing pressure pulling one of the crew still trying to get to the pods out, but everyone else managed to get in, Wrex pulling himself into his pod. Shepard was hanging onto her own pod but was unable to get a proper hold, but thankfully Garrus was in her pod as well and grabbed her hand, pulling her in before the pods shut. Groaning, the commander got in her seat and clicked in. "Are we clear to jettison? How's the rest of the deck up above?"

Coming over the comms, Kaidan confirmed. "Command deck's been waiting, we're good to go."

"We also have everyone we could help into pods, but Naruto and Joker are not picking up." Liara sounded very worried now.

Cursing, Shepard tried pulling the Normandy's systems up, but found the entire computer gone, unable to connect. "Not good... We either launch now or risk waiting..."

She paused before going to her comm; "Naruto!" All she received was static before growling and hitting the launch button. The female commander grunted as the pod took off. Through the window, Wrex and Garrus watched as the Normandy was hit again by an energy beam from the enemy ship.

"Who is that?" Vakarian questioned.

Wrex, however, said nothing as he stared hard at the ship.

Nearly losing his footing as the blast ripped through more of the ship's command deck, Naruto narrowed his eyes. "Sorry, Joker, but the Normandy is doomed! And I am NOT losing you over your pride!" He grabbed the brittle pilot by the arm and using his Biotics lifted the man from his seat and pulled him to the pod as carefully as he could to not hurt Joker.

As he got Joker in, the Normandy was hit by another blast, causing Naruto to dislodge and slam into the back of the wall as far from Joker and the pod as possible without leaving the ship. Joker watched in horror as the beam got closer to the pod, and Naruto was against the wall. "Naruto! Come on!"

Seeing the beam cut him off, and knowing where the panel to launch was, the blonde closed his eyes. He knew what he had to do. "See you around, buddy." Grunting as he pushed off the wall, the biotic sniper punched the controls and activated the launch, sending Joker's pod out to join the rest.

With the beam cutting the rest of the Normandy in pieces, the ship blew, every part of the hull sent flying from the explosion, including Naruto. A minute passed as he drifted down to the planet, but he managed to come back from a short blackout. Seeing the pods out and safe, and the ship choosing to leave them be to fly off as its work was done, the blonde sighed, relaxing. "_Sucky way to go, but at least everyone I care about is safe._"

He glared up at the enormous cruiser; "May the goddess take you." The blond closed his eyes as he felt the gravity of the planet catch him. "_Look after them._"

The hum of the atmosphere started to come to his ears, the burning sensation of reentry scorching his body, death approaching fast.

…

"_**...Your work is far from done...**_" A feminine voice whispered in his mind as his eyes shot open, and then light blinded him before darkness took him.

**XxX ~ Days later ~ XxX**

Emily felt numb; her body seemed to move on autopilot as she sat with members of the black foxes, the grand matriarch and surviving Normandy crew barely listening to an Asari priestess hymn a eulogy.

Was this real?

A part of her mind question in both anger and grief. While the rational, soldier side knew the truth. Naruto was dead... Taken from them by an unknown enemy who destroyed the Normandy in minutes.

A tearful Ino held crying Sakura who literally shook in grief. Not that the others were faring better as from Kiba to Neji, all of the former gang wept. At Emily's side, Garrus stared at empty coffin while Wrex glared in no direction.

Joker, though his left leg was in a cast, walked up with crutches to Emily, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry... I shouldn't have tried so hard to get the Normandy to survive that thing."

"It's not your fault, it's that damn ship's fault. Whoever attacked us found us, saw us through our stealth systems, and was able to cut through us like nothing I've seen before." Taking his hand and sighing with a shaky breathe, Commander Shepard looked towards the coffin. "It's still not sunk in yet. And when it does, I don't even know what I'll do."

"None of us do..." Joker looked to the coffin and kept steady.

Light sniffles came from Tali next a mournful Liara and Ashley; "Who attacked us?" The chief asked in a whisper.

"I know who they are." Wrex addressed as eyes fell on him; "Will tell you after this is done. The dead are always shown respect, even from Krogan."

The gunnery chief leaned forward and rubbed her eyes clean of tears. "Whoever they were, I want some payback."

"Please, let us not think about such things yet. This is supposed to be his Siara send-off, it's meant to be remembered fondly." Liara held her hands together in prayer.

Their Turian crew member gave a small scoff, mandible twitching. "Never even got to settle the score. It was close, but he still had a couple of headshots more than I did. Guess he won that bet."

Out of them all, Tali was just silent, listening as everyone cried and mourned, in her heart she felt emptiness, someone she cared for deeper than anyone else she had met, and he was gone

While everyone had been always polite and kind to her on the Normandy. Naruto made sure she was cared for and tended to. Even got her a new Envirosuit... She could never truly show how much that meant to her.

And now she couldn't. Her hand clenched into a fist.

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

As most of the crew gathered to eat and talk, most of the Foxes went back to their work or their own ways of mourning, some even taking time off to do so, such as Sakura and Ino. Wrex sighed as he drank some hard liquor. "The ship that attacked us... I can't be more certain after my time traveling the Terminus. That ship belongs to a very secret race of aliens. Collectors. Only they have the technology that can waste a frigate in a single attack like that."

"Collectors..." Garrus muttered beside him and Emily. "Thought they were a myth."

"Nope. As for anything else, don't have a clue. Besides, you saw how dangerous they are." Wrex stated.

Ash tapped the table; "Least we got a name."

"Yeah, not much else, and technically speaking we're not allowed any deeper into the terminus system, so we're unable to go after them in both capacity and in legal standing." Downing her drink, the dark-haired commander groaned. "So now all we can do is wait until I can get clearance to go deeper. Till then... We need to find another ship."

Putting down a credit chit and the last empty glass he drank from, the Krogan battlemaster grunted. "As much as I hate to do this, I have to decline." Everyone looked at him as he packed his bag. "I thought about this, and I was planning on leaving within the week anyway. After what you and the blonde did for me, after telling you all about my father, how I left my home planet, and the encouragement from you... It's time I returned to make a difference. I need to make a stand, and start getting the Krogan back on track."

Everyone around the ancient Krogan was stunned by his declaration. "But the reapers," Emily questioned.

"A united army of Krogan would help to fight them better than a broken race can." Wrex lamented

Garrus's mandibles twitched; "That will be one hell of an uphill battle given how stubborn your people are. Never mind will any of them even follow you?"

"Besides my own clan, we can rally the others. Won't say it will be easy, but if I can get the more... like-minded among them on my side, it will get things going. At what pace who knows. And if we can get at least one generation of new Krogan born that will help keep my species alive."

The logic was sound and blunt, the way Wrex usually was. Emily gave a nod; "Will you keep me posted on the progress?"

"Best I can, our communications is not the best."

The gunnery officer stood and gave a punch to the big reptile's shoulder, though it barely budged him and gave her a stinging couple of knuckles. "Better keep in touch, I still have to make sure your shotgun doesn't blow up in your face giving you any more scars." Though she still didn't exactly trust many that were not human, Wrex was a great friend after the months of them working together. "Gonna miss you big red."

Though the announcements weren't done as of yet, as Tali stood. "I was almost ready to say this before we were attacked, but I have learned a great deal, and thanks to the help I received from you all, especially Naruto giving me a great gift to return to my people with, I hope you will not be upset if I also return to my people. And I will do everything in my power to keep in contact with everyone. Even if it's delayed messages."

Alenko, who had been quiet mostly finally spoke as he gave a nod; "You're still on your pilgrimage after all. Everything you got should help you and your people out."

"Indeed," The Quarian murmured before giving a quick hug to Emily; "Thank you." Her voice was sincere and full of emotion.

"We're here if you need us Tali." Emily grinned. The young Quarian had grown to be a little sister to everyone on the Normandy. Her leaving hurt a bit, however, it was not a goodbye forever.

**XxX xx XxX**

A few weeks past and everything started to get much worse. Emily had finally gotten another ship to command, but Joker, being mainly Alliance, was not allowed to pilot it, and Garrus, though he was mostly always available for the crew, was starting to get an attitude. For good reason, as the Council was starting to do some hard lockdown of Reaper threat information. Shepard, alongside Garrus who had informed her of this development and Joker who was here about the piloting for a Spectre debacle, stormed the embassy to figure out what the hell was going on.

Thankfully the Human Embassy was occupied by the new seat on the Council, Anderson. "Shepard. I was expecting you... I am going to assume you've heard about the Councils decision on the Reapers?"

"Putting it mildly councilor;" The Turian C-Sec officer remarked hotly.

Emily shared his anger; "What the hell is going on?"

Anderson waved a placating hand; "Let me make it clear while I was against this, I agree to it on understanding the near-universal panic that would ensue upon hearing of the Reapers."

As much as both wanted rebuke that statement it wasn't wrong. Having told the people about the existence of an ancient sentient machine race built for genocide would send the whole universe into chaos. On that, they agree on, but not outright ignoring the threat and go on like business as usual.

Garrus growled lightly; "I had a feeling the Council would do this."

Emily took a seat on a chair near Anderson's desk. "All those months of work... Feels like a slap to the face."

"Not completely." Anderson garnered their attention. "After some vocal encouragement from Admiral Hackett the Alliance is fully boosting the defenses of all the colony planets. As well as gain backing to supply more ships out here."

Small reward for such hard work.

Anderson, though his news was not the best, did give Shepard an OSD. "This is a request from Hackett. Shepard, I know how you must be feeling, and whilst I cannot move on the Council's choice, I can do everything in my power to help you."

"Thank you, sir... I still feel like they put the word of me and my brother in the dump with all this, a slap in the face to everyone from the Normandy, and a disgrace to Naruto." She was fuming a bit, but she would never aim her anger at her mentor. Emily sighed. "So, Hackett wants to see me. I'll head where he is as soon as I get a ship."

"One I can fly, optimally." Joker huffed as he was still on his crutches for the time being. "The Salarian's won't let me near a cockpit of their frigates." The concerns were there, but it wasn't going to get any better, the strain of being stuck on the Citadel dealing with the changing cultural climate as the station was still being repaired.

"I'll see what I can Joker," Anderson promised as Emily's Omni-tool glowed.

Tapping a voice spoke up; "Commander Shepard, this fellow Spectre Jondum Bau." The Salarian spoke up in their typical monotone speech.

A brow rose from the dark-haired woman along with the others; "What can I help you with Jondum?"

"First I wish to offer condolences to you about Uzumaki. He was a rare individual. Second I'd like to speak with you at Spectre HQ when you have time."

"Understood, on my way now. Not like I've been able to find a ship to command so far..." She knew that she could always book transport with ease, but it was not the same without her own crew. She blipped the comms and started on her way.

Seeing as Spectre HQ was only accessible to Spectre's, and of course the Council too, Garrus sighed. "I should probably go see what I can do on the streets, let me know when you're ready to go, alright Shepard?"

Turning to him the Spectre nodded. "Will do. See you seen guys."

It took a long elevator ride but she managed to make it to HQ in good time. Entering where Jondum was, she crossed her arms. "What is it, Bau?

"Straight to the point, you think like a Salarian." Jondum nodded; "I requested your presence to offer you additional Spectre class training."

The offer was more than little surprising as the woman's eyes rose. "That's... But I've been through full N7 training."

"I know, I looked through yours and your brother's files. And I can agree N7 could rival Asari commandos, Spectre training is more unique. It offers a wide range of combat, stealth, weapons, and tech training. Naruto had been trained in both Alliance and Asari commando practices. With a touch of Justicar basics."

Emily gave the Salarian a look; "Not many know that part." And as she recalled her brother's opinion on that it was the most brutal training sessions he had ever endured. And he does not know how he had survived it honestly.

At that Jondum grinned; "I have many sources. So what do you say? Expand your skills like that of your brother?"

The offer was very tempting, but right now she had a lot on her mind, and on her path forward. *Between losing my brother, my responsibilities as a Spectre, and tensions running high on a good ship that we can use, and of course some of the team leaving...* Sighing heavily, she knew she had to decline, but looked up at the Salarian. "Mind if I take some time to think about it? I have to go see Admiral Hackett, and find a ship for Joker to fly us in."

"Of course, take your time. When you're ready just give me a call."

**XxX Two Days Later XxX**

Nearing a ship outside Arcturus' boundary, Shepard was confused even more. When she was called to Hackett, she was called alone, meaning leaving Garrus behind to continue C-Sec work for the time being. Joker was flying their shuttle, thankfully Anderson got that much for now, and he was not happy. "Council seat and they can't even get us anything from anyone, not even our own Alliance forces? I'd take a decade old cruiser at this point!"

"I know how you feel, but being part of the Council doesn't give Anderson power over the entire human race. The Council is only for joint galactic affairs dealing with political problems to events within the boundaries of their control." Shepard was looking at a small station, barely visible in the black of space, but it was still visible enough for Joker to make the landing. There was nothing about the station they could see until they got close, it was using a very unique stealth field and the only reason they even got there was because Hackett gave them coordinates on a slip of paper delivered by Lock of all people.

"Why do I get the feeling he doesn't trust us?"

Rolling her eyes and looking to the crippled man, Shepard frowned. "Black ops to the extreme right here... The only reason we are here is that he trusts us. It's just that he doesn't trust anyone else finding this place."

Entering the base was easy enough, and though the facility was small, it was still spacious enough for several severs and even two whole rooms of hard copy file cabinets filled to the brim. Mirage was leading them through when he stopped. "Hackett will see Shepard alone for this meeting. Joker is welcome to sit and enjoy rest in the faculty lounge."

The two looked to each other, and Joker shrugged. "Just let me know what's up, Shepard. Don't take too long."

Mirage opened the doors into the office Hackett made his own, and the lights on the floor lit up the darkroom to the desk. Stepping in, Emily was uneasy for the moment before the darkened room buzzed into life to show everything in dull but bright lighting. "Sorry for the theatrics, Shepard, but it's how we work here."

"And just what is 'here', sir?"

Standing up and grabbing a file, the Admiral offered it forward. "The answer to that will be clear by the time we're done with your mission briefing." Seeing her step up and take the file, Shepard was confused why it was a paper copy and he could see that clear as day. "Remember when you and Naruto found that Cerberus facility? Kahoku found out its coordinates and sent them to you?"

"Yes sir, what of it?" Reading into the file, she saw the thickness of the file and began seeing a connection, from most recent to the least. She saw the file talking about a potential AI program, two sources providing Intel on biotic potential, others into genetics, and several into Prothean artifacts, mission statements on the Cerberus facility. The facility ran much deeper, where Cerberus tried reanimating corpses for study but always failed.

As she reached more, about people being found with mental issues with their biotics and wounds from torture, and more reports of Maw attacks on human victims, Hackett answered her. "You're reading every single thread we have on Cerberus activity, everything we have found out about, or shut down ourselves. And it only gets worse. Because I think I know exactly what they have been trying to do."

Finding the report from the former teammate of Naruto, Emily narrowed her eyes on the report. "And what is that sir? Pissing me off is one of the effects of this already. They pre-meditated killing Alliance personnel since Akuze?"

"Since months after the First Contact War, actually. Cerberus was once starting up as an answer to the STG, Asari Commandos, even Turian SpecOps. They got funding at first, but as soon as there were reports of abuse of power, another program was proposed in secret, to keep watch over them. Seems Cerberus didn't like this idea, and went straight into independence of the Alliance, and started becoming a private corporation. The oversight group, under my command, was given its mission. Stopping Cerberus."

Emily gazed at the files then back to the admiral; "So this was what you wanted Naruto for?"

"Yes." Hackett leaned against his chair. "While being a Spectre offered more, Cerberus is an Alliance problem. We wanted to deal with them in-house."

"Sir, with all due respect..." Glancing back to the files before closing them, she put them back on the desk. "I don't know why you'd personally want Naruto for this. And even if he wanted to join, why leave me out of it? If I had known they were this horrible, I'd have asked to join too."

"Because everyone in my Corsairs has a personal reason to bring Cerberus down." That got her attention. With a deep breath, Hackett took out a small box and placed it on the desk, opening it up to show a solid glowing blue link of a chain. "And Naruto does too; he just never got the chance to know it..."

It was no secret, even if Naruto was well known for his Biotics being a rampant crimson and potent beyond everything Humans could do with such a power, there was one other with a unique biotic skill no one, even Asari could not pull off. "That's... Solid biotics! The rumors of Kushina being capable of solid dark matter manipulation was true?"

"Yes, and it saved more lives than you can imagine. Including mine. In fact, this link connected to a bulkhead when my squad was being sucked into space, without this and Kushina's determination to save us then I wouldn't be standing here." The Admiral looked to the dark-haired Spectre. "Shepard. This division is after Cerberus because they are an extremist group determined to do horrible things for, what they say, and the betterment of humanity. I'm after them personally, for killing my greatest friend."

It was then something clicked in her head; "They killed Naruto's mother."

"Yes, her last mission months after she had Naruto sent her to a known place where Cerberus set up traps. We never found her body. But there were signs of a firefight" He spoke grimly. "Cerberus agents' corpses were found, but not her." The admiral gazed at the link; "That is why I've been hunting these bastards down for years."

After a few moments, Emily frowned. "I see... That's why you've been trying to get Naruto more involved in the training for the Corsairs." Something came up though. "What happened to his dad? If reports of her death during a mission was changed like this, then what about his? After all, reports say he was dishonorably discharged."

"For good reason." Lowering his head a bit, Hackett could only sound somber telling this story. "When Cerberus was first started, Minato, Naruto's father, started working for them. Though as soon as things started looking sideways he turned into our mole in the organization. He was the one who told us about the base, and what traps were there. Before we knew what was going on, he had hidden Naruto somewhere, and then we found his corpse with the Cerberus ones. Evidence points to his betrayal of us all. He told us Cerberus wanted Kushina for their own goals, and he was going to fight back against them for his family, but the aftermath of that firefight suggests he was on their side of the battle."

"So his dishonorable discharge was warranted..." Shaking her head, Emily suddenly had a thought. "Wait, if Cerberus wanted Kushina for their goals, then if they knew about Naruto they might have wanted him too. But you're telling me that her body wasn't found, and Naruto vanished?"

"We have reason to believe they are keeping her body on ice, my Corsairs have been following a trail of bases, but the trail has turned cold. And Naruto did vanish, it wasn't for years until an old friend of Minato and Kushina who called me that I found him with you and the Foxes. An old hermit of a man, you guys called him a scoundrel sage I believe?"

Knowing the man, and frowning, Emily crossed her arms. "You mean Jiraiya?"

Former Alliance officer turned mercenary. The man had been eccentric since the day they met him during a mission in the outer rim.

Saying he left an impression was a mild understatement.

"The Major has been working for me for years. He has been roaming the seeder side in the Terminus to observe what goes on. As well as search for any info on Cerberus. Currently, he is living on Omega." Hackett remarked.

Emily's brow rose; "Did he find anything?"

"Nothing we can follow." Hackett sighed. "Mostly we only have normal Omega criminal activity we can't do anything about, nothing suggesting Cerberus is trying anything. But he did say that there have been some interesting developments of late regarding talk about a strange alien race, and other reports about the Shadow broker running some unusual business practices than normal. We've not been able to get much about either scenario, but he is currently on task to do so and then report back."

Even after hearing of almost several operations going on here, there was no suggestion to what he wanted from her. "I see. Then what does this mean for me? You said you know what Cerberus is trying to do, and you said the trail has gone cold. So now the question is what do you want me to do?"

Standing up and circling the desk, the Admiral offered an OSD. "This was taken from the last base we uncovered, and not even Lock can break the code. So we need some other methods to get into this thing. It's the information we managed to grab from the base's servers before it shut completely down. And it will lead us to where they are keeping Kushina's body. It is also going to tell us much of their current work as of late. With Spectre resources, we were hoping you could find out how to crack it yourself. Besides Lock, you're the best technical prodigy in the Alliance. If you can't crack it, then find someone who can help you get an idea of how. Though you're not a part of the Corsairs, Naruto trusted you as his family. So will I, so I trust you will help us finally put an end to Cerberus."

Shepard stared at the OSD for a minute; "Lay her to rest and get payback for Naruto. Guess I made my decision for Jondum."

That got a nod from Hackett; "I'll give you access to Naruto's network. There you can reach me, Mirage, or Lock whenever you have something. Also knowledge of the classified information he was privy to."

Emily saluted; "Thank you, sir."

She left him to his thoughts as he looked at the picture of him with everyone, Kushina, and Minato as well as others like Jiraiya. "My friends..."

**XxX xx XxX**

Coming back to the Citadel took no longer than expected, but sadly, Emily had some news to everyone else. "I'm sorry... I have to do this one alone."

Garrus cocked his head; "Going to take Jondum's offer?"

"Yeah," Emily gave a nod; "Settle some old debts."

"We'll be here if you need us, commander," Alenko remarked beside Ashley who gave the thumbs up.

Taking one of the elevators Shepard returned to Spectre HQ. She noticed one or two others inside the room before eyeing Jondum who worked on a console. The Salarian noticed her once she strolled his way; "Ah welcome back Commander Shepard."

"I have a decision on your offer."

Seeing she has chosen to accept, he nodded. "Then we leave in 2 hours. Bring what essentials you can, and be ready. Whatever training I give you, you will have to pass by the years end."

Smirking, Emily Shepard crossed her arms. "As long as I get hacking and engineering skills on par with your best Salarians, I'll gladly take on anything else."

Jondum gave a brief smirk; "I look forward to your progress."

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX ~ xx ~ XxX ~ xx ~ XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

Arch: And here we…..Go.

Godo: That was the first chapter! Short, but then again this is just prologue, later comes some NEW stuff, and world-building with the Shepard Chronicles!


	2. Shepard Chronicles: In Search of Answers

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX ~ xx ~ XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

A bead of sweat dripped from Emily's brow. "With your Alliance N7 training you adjusted well, but as you can see Spectre training is on another level for a reason." Jondum remarked as he stood close by watching intently; "Combining the best and brutal aspects of the council races military doctrine. We have created a versatile and brutal regiment only a few can endure. There is a reason the Spectre ranks are so small."

"No kidding," Shepard growled out.

What Jondum didn't tell her, is his regiment was the most brutal. As the Commander was put through the wringer, he was evaluating what to teach her, and see what she could and could not accomplish. "I am heading back to Sur'kesh today, whilst I can get you a pass to non-classified areas, I will be going where you cannot follow. So you can choose to stay aboard or come with me. Your choice, Shepard."

"Of course I am coming with, seeing the homeworld of the Salarians? I feel honored even being allowed nearby. STG keeps even some of its best allies away at times." Getting a towel, Shepard made sure to recover her body without showing any fatigue, even though she was feeling the pain from the training.

Per Jondum's request, the two were bound on a Salarian cruiser bound for Sur'kesh from the Citadel. Since then Emily has been going through multiple physical exercises and well as mental ones. Jondum was a harsh teacher, but so were the hard asses in N7. And she was enjoying it, as well as taking her mind off losing her brother.

Despite the exhaustion, she felt excited to go to the Salarian homeworld. She had been to several Asari colonies and even the homeworld itself with Naruto. So this was a new experience for her.

It did not take long, and the ship landed. The outpost was small and hidden within a waterfall, but it served well as the two came out from the ship into a fluorescent light biome, organic lighting from a variety of plants on the ceilings as low light pathway indicators on the floor pulsed with different lights. "Not every base is like this, but I do find this one a good one to show allies. We may be scientifically gifted, but our world has always been organically refreshing. Welcome to Mobile Base Pai'guo. Named for a folktale of a warrior hidden in the water who killed tyrants."

Naruto would like that. Emily nodded as they strolled through the base. A few Salarians gave her a quick hello or watched her as she walked with Jondum. "Take it you don't get many other races coming here."

"As I said, a few allies. In the city, we have several other races that live among our people. Turian, Asari, Hanar, Drell, even some humans."

As they walked Emily took stock to everything around her. Naturally, there were research areas, but also military training with many Salarians going through multiple exercises. Along with weapon's training, stealth, as much as can be taught. "Your people are hard workers."

"We have to be given our short lifespans. Forty years might not seem much, but one can live a good life in what they can do every day."

Stopping near an elevator, Jondum turned to his trainee. "This is where I go further in. Try not to be too curious around here, we've had... Several incidents where others pressed buttons randomly. Needless to say, the messes caused us much trouble. I will return shortly."

As he left, Shepard went to look around. With everything going on around her, she decided to focus on finding more information about software and technician training. Though not exactly what she wanted, she found a room dedicated to combat-engineer training, with a current course about the uses of malicious code to hack into machines like the Geth and how to use them rather than destroy them, for a short time at least.

In the room was a lone Salarian working on their Omni-tool. "Encryption session will be in on hour." The Salarian spoke in a feminine voice. Emily never could tell them apart. The female Salarian turned and noticed who was in the room; "Ah, Commander Emily Shepard."

"So word got around."

"Indeed, Jondum gave us the full rundown on you. I am sorry for the loss of your brother."

Emily gave a nod thanks; "And you are?"

"Oh! Apologizes. My name is Tisal Zizori." The female Salarian gave a small bow before shaking hands. "I oversee the training software and technicians."

"Then I'm likely going to be with you the most besides whatever else Jondum has in store."

Tisal nodded; "I read. It will be curious to see how you fare."

With a slight hum, Emily had a hunch. "So it's not just being here, but he already has my name down for your class. An hour you said? Unless Jondum has something for me to do, I'll be there. Pleasure meeting you, Tisai." She offered a hand with a smile.

**XxX ~the Citadel ~ XxX**

When Garrus thought of being a Spectre you just started after an evaluation from another Spectre. Turns out it wasn't the only other way. Much to his annoyance. Currently, the Turian sat by a console going over information that one must learn to be a Spectre. "I never saw Uzumaki or Shepard going through this." He quipped as his mandibles twitched.

Standing next to him was another Turian with white plates and black markings in full Phantom armor. "While their induction into our ranks was quick due to recent events we did send them both these documents to go over."

"Given who brought you into the Spectres I figured the council had some words with you. Avitus Rix."

Rix shrugged; "People can say whatever they want. I don't care, whatever happened to Saren won't be my fate. Why I'm retiring in a few weeks."

"You're defending him?" A growl came from the former C-Sec.

"He was a brutal bastard; no one will ever question that. But the Saren I remember had a code when I met him. Yeah, he was no fan of humanity after his brother got killed by Mercy during the relay incident. But he wasn't petty like the Batarians. Hell, he protected a human woman at some club on a colony planet from one who wanted to torture her." The Turian Spectre shook his head; "At any rate, it's done with and he's dead. Let it be Vakarian."

A low grumble came from Garrus but kept quiet as he worked.

Not being one for the bullshit, Rix sat beside the sniper. "Want my bottom line so you can stop growling at me? Ten years ago, he disappears for six. Before that, he was nothing but the best Spectre that a Turian could become. The moment he hits Eden Prime, he's covered in prosthetics and a Geth army at his back. The Saren you killed, I would have wished for the chance to knock his block off. So no, I am not defending the monster you and the human siblings took down. But don't go thinking that the monster he became was the monster he always was."

"_...Guess that was true enough._" Garrus begrudged with a long sigh. "So what does a Spectre do when he actually retires?" Better to change the subject.

Rix shrugged; "Figure that out as I go."

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

Huffing on the floor, out of breath after seven hours of combat training with Jondum, Shepard found herself sitting up in her own sweat. "You don't pull any punches. And what was that crazy move? It looked like something Wrex would have done."

With a small grin, Bau crossed his arms. "I've learned a few techniques to rival, and even emulate, Krogan combat and ritual movements. Even know how to hurt them with a good head smash maneuver."

Emily had to say she had a newfound respect for the Salarians and their military regiments. In the last five days had been a pure test of her mental and physical prowess along with her skill as a tech. And she has loved every moment of it.

"Ready for more?" Bau questioned as Emily got back to her feet.

"Let's go."

Just as she got into a stance, they were interrupted by someone coming into the room. "Excuse me for intruding, but we have a call coming in for Shepard. She's being hailed by someone aboard the Quarian Flotilla, a Tali'Zorah Vas Neema. Formally Nar Rayya, who I believe was a former comrade? She says she has important information to deliver."

Bau nodded. "I see. Take a break, speak to your friend. I'll be waiting for you here."

"Thanks, Bau." She grabbed her uniform and put it on as she went to the secure channel, knowing that was the only way to get and send calls and messages through the base. As soon as Tali came on, she smiled. "I suspect Congratulations are in order, you've got a promotion onto a ship. Nice work."

"Thank you, I only got this far thanks to you and Uzumaki, along with everyone on the Normandy. The Geth data and tech we recovered has been a boon for the Flotilla." Tali paused as she looked down for a moment; "I only wished I was calling under better circumstances."

That garnered Shepard's attention; "Something wrong?"

"You could say that. Five days ago one of our ships was attacked by Cerberus."

"Cerberus?" Eyes lighting with fire, the dark-haired Commander was instantly ready to find out more. "What happened? And is everyone alright?"

"Yes, mostly. The Idenna sustained damage, we lost a few of our people, but we managed to push them back because it was only a small group of invaders. We believe they were here to retrieve a young girl who is a potent Biotic. We had two Alliance personnel from the Ascension project here with her, trying to guard her against Cerberus."

"And are they all ok?"

"Yes. In fact, the security officer and the young girl are preparing to go on an expedition with some of our own. I'll tell you about it later, but the teacher returned to your Ascension Project. Their names, ranks, and what we know about the entire endeavor will be sent your way, including the information on Cerberus we managed to find. Sadly, it's not much. Omega, the Ascension Project, some chemicals and strange devices. Nothing pointing to their true intent here. Maybe you can find something I didn't." Tali sighed. "This was a mess, and Cerberus almost got away with blowing up several ships if it wasn't for the humans who were there."

The Ascension Project, a Grissom academy endeavor for children to harness their biotic abilities. It's a far cry from the disaster that was BAat and what Alenko went through. And in Naruto's case, he was sent to that Asari in their cross-species initiative. Emily recalled another who did that but not the name.

"_Hmm, wasn't Anderson's old flame the head of that? Focus…_"

"Can you relay any information from the Flotilla to me?" Emily questioned.

Tali nodded; "I was already going to. Outside of my people, I only trust you... And Naruto with this." Grief crept in her tone.

Closing her eyes, the redhead took a long sigh; "I wish he was here too." She opened them to look at her Quarian friend; "I'll checkup what's going on. See if I can find Cerberus while at it."

"Thank you, Shepard. And if you find anything about why they attacked us, besides the biotic girl, then please let me know."

With a smile and nod, the dark-haired Commander waved. "Will do. Take care Tali, keep in touch." As the video shut off and the information was finalized and delivered to an OSD, Shepard instantly put it into her Omni-tool.

Bau was there watching her. "I take it this is the first since the base you took out a while back? Cerberus has been gaining traction of late."

"Not a good sign given all the nightmare projects I and Naruto found while hunting Saren." Emily lamented. "And they were bold doing something with the Grissom academy and Quarian flotilla. I need to check this out."

"Of course," Bau nodded; "These people are an insult to your people, moreover they are a danger to everyone in Citadel space. If you need resources I will provide all I can from the STG and Spectres."

"Thanks, Jondum."

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

After a quick lunch, of which Emily was glad that Salarians shared the same amino acid compound for food, she decided to hit the Ascension project, find out what happened from the woman she saw in the files, a Kahlee Sanders "_She is the daughter of Grissom himself, teaching at his school, and was that old flame of Andersons. Maybe I should give him a message regarding what she's been up to._"

Boarding a transport, she was sitting down when Jondum came up to the door. "I'll be expecting a message when you are ready for training again. Until then, I have my own assignment to worry about. Stay safe"

With that, she was lifted off and on her way to the most ambitious school the Alliance had in space. Where Biotics and technical geniuses were given the best education for the betterment of humankind. "_Without the immoral experiments..._"

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

It had been a few years since Emily had been to the Petra Nebula. Given that her last shore leave at Elysium had turned into a small scale war with pirates and slavers. But it was near the colony where the Jon Grissom academy station floated in space. As Emily's shuttle appeared from the relay she whistled absently whistled. "_This place is massive._"

Resembling a cross with a sphere at the center, Emily guessed the symbolism likely eased the more Abrahamic religious sort. Ascension was only one part of what this place gave for youths. Ranging for all manner of educations for future generations to come.

Soon her comm became active; "To unknown shuttle identify yourself." A man spoke in an authoritative tone

"This is Commander Emily Shepard of the Alliance and Council Spectre. I heard of the incident that occurred several days ago and came to investigate."

"Emily Shepard?" Now a female voice spoke up; "David's protégé?"

That cocked a brow from the commander; "Captain Anderson did train me, yes."

"I'm Kahlee Sanders; I'll have one of the hangers open for you. Welcome to Grissom Academy."

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

As the brief conversation ended Emily sat her shutter down in a large open hanger. Outside the shuttle stood a woman in her late thirties with short blond hair and blue eyes. Dressed in a formal Alliance outfit. Beside her were one guard and a man in civilian clothes. As the shuttle door opened Emily strolled out to be greeted by the blond woman; "I'm Kahlee Sanders." She extended her hand for which Shepard took.

"Emily Shepard."

"I heard what happened at the Citadel; with everything going on here I haven't had time to get a hold of David. How is he?"

The Commander heard the concern in her tone but stayed silent; "The Captain is fine. Currently promoted as the human councilor."

A snort escaped Kahlee as she grinned; "Oh he will be having fun with all the politicians."

"I feel he will try keeping them in line, if possible." The off-putting yet warm tone of the woman before her had been something she was not used to in military complexes. "_Then again, this isn't strictly military._"

Kahlee smiled, sensing the uneasy stare. "Civilian talk aside, I heard you are here about the incident regarding Cerberus? Whilst we sent out a report about the incident a couple of days ago, you're in a Salarian ship. I take it you knew about the attack earlier than that?"

"I have a friend on the Flotilla, a Quarian who was part of my crew during the hunt for Saren. She got in contact with me, gave me a lot of the details. Sorry to hear about what happened with the young Grayson. Thankfully she's alright and finding her own way with the Quarians expedition fleet. Shall we head inside?" Emily at least let herself relax; at least until they reached the point about the agent they had in custody

Kahlee sighed as she walked with the commander while the other two followed; "We detained the man who is with Cerberus. Dr. Jiro Toshiwa, if that's even his real name. He worked with Gillian, as well as injected her with something he stated was to amplify her Biotics."

"Was Gillian hurt?"

"We honestly don't know what he gave her. I have people working on traces of the chemical we could find. Gillian is perhaps one the single greatest Biotics I have ever seen outside of your brother and Lieutenant Cora Harper. However, Gillian had high functioning Autism."

"Some would name it unidentified evolutionary properties. In a Biotic, it would be dangerously unstable and prone to violent outbursts, which is why they are usually not with social groups, normally only a few friends. But digressing, I am assuming whatever he gave her was either a cause or catalyst alongside this unique medical diagnosis. How long until we can find results for what they gave her?"

Impressed by Shepard's medical know-how on Biotics, Kahlee took the question to thought. "Well, given it has only been a week since the injection... We can assume anywhere between a couple of weeks to a couple of months, maybe faster if we sent it off to a genuine lab, but I would rather this stay where I can see it. I've been through too much to let anyone I don't personally know without a doubt they are good people touch anything that's affecting those around me that I care for."

Emily could respect that, this woman likes to keep things in-house. And in all honesty, she couldn't blame her. Especially if there was the risk of a Cerberus agent in the possibly hiding in the ranks. The two ladies went to a comfortable silence as the four walked through the halls of the academy. Out of the corner of her eye, Emily could see students of all ages paying attention to them. "Imagine these kids are a handful?"

Kahlee snorted; "They can be, but wouldn't want to be anywhere else but here. These kids are the future and I will make sure all of them are safe and have the tools they need when leaving here."

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

Going through another long hallway, they reached a door where two guards were posted. "We've kept him in this room. Most secure and out of the way from the kids." Kahlee explained as the door slid open to a storage room.

Inside sat a young man of Asian descent in a medical uniform. His eyes turned; "You got the big guns, bringing the hero of Elysium here, Kahlee." His voice was casual as he sat back on his chair. "What can I do you for Commander Shepard."

Kahlee only rolled her eyes while Emily crossed her arms. "Why not drop the act Dr. Jiro. If that is your real name."

"It is, I didn't lie about that."

Shepard came up to the table and was calm and collected. "Then, Jiro here's the rundown. You were in possession of a strange compound that was injected into a little girl that went out of control the minute you did it. You are confirmed as a Cerberus agent. By every power I have with my rank, I can have you put in a cell in the farthest reaches of alliance space with an army around you so you can't do anything but rot. Let's make this easy. You tell me what that compound was, why you gave it to Gillian, and why your illusive man has these experiments being run on children under the alliance's purview."

Scoffing, the man just turned his head away. "Got nothing to say to you. Lips are sealed."

Kahlee came up beside him and smirked. "Maybe I need to put you in another talkative mood... This time I can squeeze harder."

After a moment of silence, the Commander could see the dude sweating. She gripped his shoulder. "Jiro, you chose the hard way. If you want to survive, then you talk. Or, you can find yourself in pain." Without warning, her Omni-Tool sent a jolt through him, making his body lock up and his breath stop, gasping for a moment to collect himself. "I have fifty levels of shock therapy. That was just the taste of level 1..."

Jiro grunted as he shook his head; "Knew you were the rough type Kahlee. But you'll just be wasting your time. I won't talk."

"Really? That loyal to a group who do inhuman acts for the 'betterment' of our people?" Emily snarked out.

"We never said we were saints Shepard. Look at humanity compared to the Salarians, Turians, and Asari. We're centuries if not a thousand years behind."

Kahlee shook her head; "So the ends justify the means so we can catch up? What you did to Gillian-"

"Will advance humanity. She could rival if not surpass the late Commander Uzumaki and he was our species only natural biotic. We need to strive to become like he was. To the point can use biotics naturally like the Asari. As big as an anomaly he was, that is the finish line for us."

Emily glared. "And get there no matter who dies in the process?"

"Evolution isn't pretty. Sure, if there is a Hell we'll likely be going there. But I'll pay any price if it means our species advances onward."

"_Lovely... A true believer…_" Emily felt a headache coming. These were the types she hated dealing with.

Grabbing the back of his head, Emily took a deep breath. "Yeah? Well, let me tell you something. The more you do horrible grotesque and evil things, it makes the entire race seem dangerous, so those more advanced will see us a threat... they then kill us all because you assholes thought you needed to advance us prematurely and because you are all racist pieces of SHIT!" She slammed his head into the table, so hard that when she let go he launched back and on the floor.

Jiro was gasping through the bloody nose he had, trying not to swallow the gross flem of mucus and blood. "The fuck!?"

"Cerberus is not going to help humanity survive, they will kill humanity for their own goals. Because if Cerberus were so beneficial to the entirety of humanity, they wouldn't kill innocent lives, kidnap children, and throw HUMANS away like SCRAPS!" Picking him up by the neck of his shirt, the Commander glared into his eyes. "For an organization that speaks of being better. You lot seem to hate your own kind as much as the other races you tend to spit on! This is why I am going to take you all down... Oh, and thanks for the data." She head-butted the prick and then set him down, huffing as she took an OSD from his tooth that she knocked out. "Electrical static in the mouth? Had to be a hidden data pack."

Kahlee blinked a few times as Jiro was now unconscious with his head on the table; "Not like your brother I take it."

"Don't have the temperament he did with people." Emily lamented dryly while holding the tooth; "Can look this over and see what it has."

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

Rix grunted as he blocked a strike from Garrus before grabbing his fellow Turian's arm and throwing hard onto a training mat. "You fight with anger. Anger keeps you sharp unless you let it overtake you."

Garrus only groaned as he got back to his feet. "_By the Spirits, I knew Spectre training was tough, but the hand to hand made what I learned from the military look like, as humans say, amateur hour._"

Next to tech, weapons, Avitus had been putting through his paces. "We blended the best of council races martial combat together, cultivated it till it reached what I think is the best hand to hand Martial skills in the galaxy... Outside Justicar training."

Grunting, the blue armored Turian got up and into a stance. "Heard Justicars have something so dangerous only one out of ten survives the full training." He threw a hard jab, keeping at a distance knowing that his strength was his reach.

Rix didn't let him stay far, stepping into the punch and causing his trainee to try and side-step out, only to roundhouse kick Garrus hard in the knees, making him fall flat on his back again. "Well, seeing as hardly any Asari try for the training anymore unless they are pure combat Matriarchs, one in five is not that harsh. But what's really punishing, only one in thirty outside the battle-hardened Matriarchs survive. And so little of them join, it's almost an eighty percent chance of death."

Garrus shrugged off the pain as he got back to his feet. He recalled Naruto telling him he had some basic Justicar training. All the blond said was N7 had a lot to learn. "So let's see what we got before reaching the Asari."

A chuckled came Rix; "Love that attitude!"

After an hour, and with Rix once again taking Garrus off his feet, but not without Garrus twisting his legs and landing a solid hit into the shoulder of the Turian Spectre, the door opened up to a new arrival. "Missing anything good? Or is my teammate going to lie there all day?"

Garrus looked up to see Emily in the room smirking. "For your information-" a groan came out as he got back on his feet. "Rix is one of the better Turian hand to hand specialists in the Spectres. It'll be tough to get a hit in any way."

"There is always someone better out there." Rix spoke with a shrug before extending a hand to Emily; "Avitus Rix."

"Emily Shepard." She took his hand with a good shake. "How's my partner doing?"

"He's got a lot of room to grow. Better than most I've seen in my time here." He paused; "Need him?"

Emily gave a nod; "Got some encrypted information I'd like to go over with her. Cerberus related."

Rix hummed and stared at her, but noticed she was not going into more detail. "I see... Will this be a quick exchange, or are you off for some hunting?"

"Depends on him, but I think Garrus and I will be heading out. Sorry, Rix." She turned and got Garrus out of the room.

The Spectre hummed more as he watched them leave. He chose to go see one of his other Spectre allies, who were on the hunt for Cerberus Intel as well. "I wonder what Tela Vasir has to say about Cerberus and shadow information..."

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

Emily filled in Garrus while the Turian took a small breather from the hour sparring session; "Bold bastards for going after the Flotilla. But hurting kids..." Garrus growled; "All for some sick notion to advance the species."

"We need to bring them down before they do even more damage all in the name of human advancement..." Emily sneered as she remembered Dr. Jiro's words.

"So we are going to go over the data of those files?"

Emily nodded; "See what they have been doing and hopefully find any leads we can use. Maybe to some agent or bases, we can bring down"

"All in favor of that," Garrus smirked in Turian fashion.

An hour of decoding later and Garrus found a set of coordinates. "Hey, this one is a fresh update... Only a couple of days old. Think they are still there? It goes to an old facility out near the Terminus."

Reading the report, though, she was not about to jump until she knew what was there. Not much, but enough. "Seems they were preparing to get to the Flotilla before the Gillian thing. It might be where they staged the attack. We can gather more information there. But we have to hurry, Cerberus has been known to quickly get in and out of places.

"Agreed, we should get an extra gun for this in case we end up in a firefight." Garrus nodded. "Should I get Rix?"

"If you think he can help, but we'll have to give him a fast explanation without revealing too much about the mission at hand. It's my mission, not a Spectre one." Though part of her was worried Rix would try something.

As he went, Shepard checked a little more of the data and found some code to try and recreate for the datapad she was working on. She found one locked bit of code filled in and smiled. "That's interesting..."

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

As Emily geared up beside Garrus, Rix adjusted the sights of his assault rifle. "Guess this will be as you humans say my last hoorah before retiring." The Turian was given a quick summary of what was going on and decided to help out. Since this was an alliance mission he did not ask questions. For which Shepard was grateful. "Where are these Cerberus guys at?"

"The Hades Nexus," Emily clarified; "They were smart enough to pick a region where no Alliance was stationed."

As they hit the relay, Garrus and Shepard got a message from an old friend. Liara sent a voice message they listened to. "To my friends. I apologize for sending this out of the blue, but I am going to be out of contact for the next few weeks. I have found out something, something dangerous. I believe someone has found and stolen, the body of the late Commander Uzumaki. After going through secret channels, I found that someone is interested in buying him, so I am off to find out whom and get his body back. If I do not make it back, please find the coordinates linked, all my information on this endeavor is there. Good luck, may the goddess guide you."

Time slowed to a halt for both Emily and Garrus as shock bore on both of their faces "They what..." She muttered in almost a whisper.

Rix thought for a moment as he heard the message; "Since your brother was the first natural human biotic, I can guess a lot of black-market scientists would love to exam him."

Shock soon slowly turned rage as Emily lashed out and punch the side of the shuttle. Her breath was heavy. Her teeth gnashed as she growled.

"Hey!" Rix yelled while commanding the shuttle. "Keep your focus."

"Keep our focus?" Garrus quipped back equally angry.

"Right now we have a mission, vent that anger out on Cerberus. And once that's done you two can deal with what is going on with Uzumaki's body."

Looking over the message, Emily grunted in frustration before crossing her arms and trying to relax in her seat. "We trust our friend... If Liara needs help, we will hear about it."

Nodding, her Turian friend could only accept and agree for now. Rix was closing in on their destination, humming as he thought about the potential risks of such a situation. They all chose to let it slide. As the station was coming into range, Rix announced their arrival. "We're closing in. I'm getting some life signs, but only two shuttles in the bay. I am unsure what they are currently up to, but if they are on the way out, we better hurry."

Grabbing her helmet, Shepard stood up. "Get us in nice and easy, and no raising the alarms. When we get in, we jack their transport with explosives in case they try to escape."

Their shuttle hit the atmosphere of Karumto. An earth-sized planet, but extremely uninhabitable due to its Carbon dioxide and ash from the multiple active volcanoes. The terrain was a hell-scape of rocky jagged mountains and lava. The last place a person would expect someone would put a base at. Perfect for a terrorist group that wanted to remain incognito.

"I suggest we wear helmets till we enter the base," Rix remarked casually; "And expect it to be a little hot down there Shepard."

Emily said nothing as she fixed her weapon and put her helmet on. Garrus looked to his fellow Turian; "I think she is too pissed off to care."

A grunt came from Avitus as he checked the scanners. "And we have one base. Inside a damn volcano. And people call Krogan crazy." Maneuvering the shuttle he landed it just out of the base's range. "We have to hoof it a bit but better than being shot at."

Emily pumped her shotgun; "Let's send these fuckers to hell."

Rix put on his helmet along with Garrus as the human punched the hatch button to open the door; "And I thought Turian and Krogan females were the fiercest." The Spectre muttered.

"Shepard will surprise you." Garrus quipped as they moved out.

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

The Cerberus base was built into the bedrock of the volcano with one access route they could only find that was guarded by LOKI and YIMIR mechs. Something that got Emily's attention from their cover. "Those are new mech types from Hahne-Kedar. But they weren't supposed to be deployed until several months from now."

"Guess this Illusive Man has some deep pockets," Rix remarked.

Gearing up her Omni-tool, Garrus watched as Shepard grabbed a grenade that looked different than usual, and then a blue light came on. "What do you have there?"

"A little trick I learned from day two with Jondum's tech pals." She tossed the device and it made some noise, drawing in the mechs before bursting with electrical power and shutting the mechs within the radius of the door down, the overload blowing their motherboards and their chests popping out into holes from the damage "Overload EMP grenade, custom made. I kind of went overboard with the power output, but no one knows the limits of these mechs I combat yet.

With the mechs down they dash towards the door as Emily hacks the side terminal. With quick fingers, the light above the door turns from red to green and slides open. "Let's move," Shepard whispered as the trio went inside.

Sojourning through a long hallway, they reach another door which opens to a MASSIVE coordinator connecting to multiple rooms of various natures. They stuck to the shadows as they saw movement. "How the hell did Cerberus make a place like this and no one noticed?" Garrus whispered.

Emily shrugged "Figure that out later."

Some Cerberus operatives in coats were carrying out some boxes when Emily snatched out and grabbed on, Garrus the other as the two locked the mouths shut. Rix kept an eye out around the corner for anything coming. With pistol to head, the Commander spoke low. "You're going to tell us what Cerberus is doing here, and where I can find every ounce of the information under lock and key, with the said key to any locks holding me from that information. Do it, and you live to see another day. If not, I take you out and find a way in anyway."

"Research and development, as well as military operations." The man spoke fast. He pales as Garrus leaned in.

"What are you techs working on?"

"Weapons, armor, mechs, ships, as well as biological studies..."

Rix kept guard as Shepard asked; "Where do we access all the information?"

"Archives are at the bottom..."

"Much appreciated..." Shepard knocked hers out, Garrus following suit. She looked to Garrus and Rix. "We need one of us to get these guys to the shuttle. I need to go in, which of you two will take care of this?"

As the two Turians looked to each other, Garrus made his argument. "Rix, you can tie them up outside, follow us in afterward. I'll stay with my partner." Though hesitant, he saw Rix agree and get the devices to hold the two scientists. "Thank you." The two team members started slowly progressing to the archives.

"Let us try not to start a ruckus until after we get all the data," Emily remarked quietly as they stuck to the shadows. "Then we can turn this place into a smoldering crater."

Garrus grinned; "I like that part."

Though the base was running, the only humans here seemed to be the two they met, as everything else in every other lab was being packed up by mechs. Though small, the base had considerable depth in the volcano. Sneaking through to the bottom level, the two managed to find where Archives was, and thankfully they saw only three guards, but they were actual people. As they waited for Rix, they overheard the guards talking. "Think the scientists have gotten everything cataloged for those new bots?"

"I don't know, we still haven't gotten the all-clear. Hope the next gig is in a cooler place, this volcano was not what I signed up for."

"No, you signed up to see Quarians in body bags. I still don't get why that op failed, who was running it?"

"Some dude named Pel, all I know is they captured no Quarians, and Pel is MIA. Keep sharp, we still have a job to do."

"What I miss?" The two looked to see Rix coming in and kneeling next to Garrus. "I noticed a distinct lack of dead mechs and human bodies. I'm guessing you have an after-objective scenario planned?" Seeing her nod he hummed. "Well, if we can detonate the nearby power supply, the explosion should rupture the bedrock enough to cause the volcanic activity to ruin this entire station."

"Sounds like we found out all hell breaks loose option." Emily looked to the guards. "We get in there, get everything we can about this base, and get out. Garrus, want to set the charge?"

"Get to do the fun part, why thank you," Garrus smirked as he and the others moved in a blink out of the shadows. Their action was so fast they caught the guard by surprise. But were dead before they could fire a shot. Once done Emily goes to the console while Garrus goes to set the charges.

Rix looks at one of the Terminals; "I'm guessing morality left these people ages ago."

"Most are just bigots and racists, the rest are even worse. Truly believing everything they are doing is to advance humanity. Not caring about making enemies along the way."

Rix kept an eye out. After a minute or so, he looked behind him. "Having trouble?"

"No... Worse... I found trouble..." She started the download. "Everything was in the process of a shutdown, I revered it to get the data, which means we might have mechs on the way if they detect that. Get ready, I'll keep getting the data." She tried everything to get the data faster, but her Omni-tool was not fast enough for such a dump of data. "Come on..."

Thankfully the detection didn't happen, but as soon as the data was saved on her Omni-tool she heard the alarms blare. Garrus came back fast. "We need to go, the mechs are coming down!"

Grabbing more EMP grenades, she filled them with every ounce of Omni-gel she could in order to overpower the mechs. She distributed them. "Short fuses, activate on the throw and keep out of distance if you want your shields to stay intact!"

As soon as they heard the automated sounds of walking Garrus and Rix threw some grenades. At that moment all hell broke loose. A swarm of LOKI mechs made their way towards the archives as the trio tore their way through them. In between were some human Cerberus guards who also attacked.

"I think we pissed them off," Rix quipped from his cover beside the others.

"And here I thought we were making friends!" Shepard grunted as she kicked a gun from a guard's hand and then grabbed him and her shotgun, blowing through his chest and using him as a shield as she tossed another grenade and started running towards it. "Garrus, the moment we hit the hangar, blow it!"

Seeing this, Garrus was unfazed as he ducked behind cover and sniped a head clean off. "On your order, Shepard!"

"Brutal, Shepard! Do you think we'll have the time to leave?!" The Turian Spectre yelled form his cover as two Mechs tried to blast at him. The halls were flooding with them now, even with more dropping from the Grenades that took out Shepard's shields. "Or the ability to with these many on our tail?!"

"We're getting out of here and blowing this place to hell Avitus," Emily yelled with certainty as they kept on the pressure against the Mechs.

Thankfully the EMP bombs were working as well as they took out the final wave, managing to get to the hangar bay. The rest of Cerberus, mostly scientists plus a few guards, were trying to load up and take off. But Rix planted bombs on them, so as they got into their own shuttle they launched with their 2 scientists and left, blowing the station and the shuttles along with them, sending the base and everyone still inside to a molten mess.

Sighing, Emily sat in her seat and started looking through the data. "That was standard levels of stress. Like when we went after Saren a bit, huh Garrus?"

Garrus groaned as he sat beside her; "Keeps the instincts sharp enough."

The shuttle cleared Karumto's atmosphere; "And if anything shows Cerberus they are not as safe as think." Rix offered in his words.

Emily looked to her Omni-Tool; "Have a lot of data to go over. Get a feeling I'm going to be up for some long nights."

Rix nodded "Hope it helps out against these bastards."

Something hit the net code again for the secret OSD and made the dark-haired woman smile. "I know it will..."

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

A day later, Garrus is listening to the call to Tali. "You're kidding! This... Is way more than just a Biotic child in our care!"

"I know. It seems that they wanted to take the Flotilla's live ships, or at least one, and attempt to lessen your numbers dramatically. Their Intel shows your live ships could become very dangerous mega-dreadnaughts if you loaded them up with sufficient weaponry. And of course, they were going to experiment on many of your people when the corpses rolled in. I hope the Intel I am sending you is helpful and able to deter any of their future attempts."

"Thank you, Shepard. I hope you made those bastards pay dearly. Keelah se'lai."

"I take it that wasn't the only data?"

Shepard turned to Garrus. "Not at all. There's enough data here to keep me hunting for a week if I keep at it. AI research, biological fusion research, that base had a few links to many others I need to go check. Something tells me I'm hitting the tip of the iceberg here, and it's looking like they are trying to make a singular power to use against us."

The Turian grunted; "Not alone you're not."

"..You sure? Your still training;" Emily paused.

"These guys have shown they are a dangerous threat to every person alive. Being fanatical only makes them more so. They have to be stopped before causing more harm."

Shepard slowly nodded; "Alright, we take them out and learn what all they have. Maybe use it against them."

"Agreed. Though I may never become a Spectre if I keep leaving my pre-Spectre training evaluations." Garrus looked to where Rix was stationed, doing some drills with other Turians. "Still... This is important. Not just to everyone else, but to us too, Cerberus wasn't exactly friendly when we were still hunting Saren. I'm all in, Shepard. I'm with you until you deem me unable to follow." Deep in his soul, he could feel that declaration solidify like the Spirits themselves were blessing him with the strength to always follow his promise, no matter how hard things got.

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX ~ xx ~ XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**


	3. Shepard Chronicles: Taking Initiative

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX ~ xx ~ XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

The noise of FTL engines sang as Shepard was going through some files. It's been a few months since the Cerberus raid, and they went mostly silent after three more. A week ago she even got a message from Mirage that the same thing happened after several of their own raids, and the trail went cold rather quickly. As she read her report out, she noticed Jondum come into her room. "Taking me back in after?"

"Not this time. You've been busy, a little too busy to effectively take in all the lessons you asked for. But you did ace the technical combat class, and you've gained much respect on Sur'kesh. The only thing you've yet to do for me to agree to send you out with full honors and passing... is to beat me once in hand to hand." Jondum grinned. "Out of ten rounds…"

It took a lot for Emily to control her facial expression upon hearing that. Wrex could say all he wanted about Salarians, Shepard knew Jondum could kick the tail off half the guys in N7 in hand to hand, including her brother. Jondum was deceptively strong and fast, matched with that Salarian intellect he was one tough man.

Still, excitement glowed in Emily's eyes; "I'm game."

The Salarian nodded; "I had a feeling you would be."

The training room on their current Cruiser was empty; the skeleton crew was safer for their current mission. As Emily got into her gear, Jondum stood ready. "Ten rounds, all you have to do is beat me once. You do, and then you pass my training. You start the session."

Almost as if sensing a good show, some of the crew not currently on duty were coming to watch, Garrus was already there lifting some weights to keep in shape. He stopped and got up close to watch. "This ought to be good..."

Emily grinned as she got into the ring. "How long until we dock?"

"Half an hour. Time runs out and you fail, unable to beat me once in all ten you fail. You fail; you continue your training under me." Jondum went into a stance and smirked.

Emily popped her neck before doing the same; "_Can't overthink this, but can't reckless either._" Her mind mentally going through scenarios. Her eyes stayed locked on her teacher before dashing forward.

Mandibles twitched from Garrus; "What do you have up your sleeve Shepard."

Having watched many Salarian spars, and getting her behind handed to her dozens of times, Shepard absorbed much about the techniques Jondum was using. She got right up next to him and dropped, kicking out at one of the feet planted in front of her, only for the Salarian to raise it and kick out at her. Cupping the ankle and grabbing at it tight, she lifted up and pushed herself forward, only to take a rotating knee to the chest and knocking her to the side as Jondum spun on a hand and regained his footing.

Not down yet, the Human Spectre game up again and jabbed forward three times, missing each as Jondum blocked each to the side, before launching a haymaker that passed in front of his nose. Rushing her as she spun to elbow his gut, he twisted an arm under that elbow and rose it up, catching her off guard before kicking forward and knocking her feet from under her as they flipped, causing her to slam face-first to the mat, and the nimble Jondum rolled back to his feet easily. "Round one, fail."

Growling, the dark-haired earthling got up. As the next five rounds went, she failed as Jondum caught her off guard with sudden catch and release movements, grappling her during every big strike. Huffing, she returned to her feet for the next round, Jondum shaking his wrist. "Five minutes. You're lasting longer."

Closing her eyes, Shepard regained her breathing. As soon as she let out a smooth breath was the moment she launched her next move. Keeping herself planted, she threw fist and elbow at her teacher, kicking at his legs to gain traction only to find him ready for anything. Playing it safer was working to her favor, but she knew she had to get out of it otherwise Jondum would switch tactics, which is what she knew he was teaching. As soon as she blocked his fierce snap kick to her shin, she jumped up and above his next kick whilst seeing him go in for the take down.

Using every piece of her strength, she tensed up her body and held her breathe, as soon as his elbow connected, she grabbed his head by the horns and planted herself. Heaving a hard exhale, she twisted her leg on his, causing his body to twist and fall enough to put his head where she wanted it, and slammed a knee into his head, causing him to fall to the ground behind him, sending her back on her ass as well. The entire ship was in shock seeing their greatest fighter lying flat on his back. Jondum was not out cold, but his head was throbbing.

A low grunt came the Salarian; "Well played Commander Shepard." Jondum rubbed his head.

Emily chuckled; "Be adaptive, as I think is a Salarian proverb." She muttered getting to her feet.

"Asari actually," Garrus spoke up from his spot.

All the crew observed as the Salarian Spectre rose to stand; "You're getting closer."

"Let's see how close," Emily kept on the pressure against her teacher.

Snap kicks landed against the human's arms and legs as she blocked before countering with heavy jabs and hooks, ducking under a slicing open-hand chop and backing off the Salarian's kick, which stepped on her knee as leverage to flip forward and kicked out at her chest. Without even thinking, Shepard planted herself forward and blocked the kick, though her arms hurt painfully from the strength of the kick. Launching back and landed on his feet, Jondum got back into stance, only for Shepard to come in and sweep kick him again.

Though he did back up to avoid it, he was surprised as soon as Shepard leaped forward against him, kicking at him with both feet, which he blocked down. As soon as she landed she was met with a fist to her face, which she ducked under and charged forward, causing Jondum to try and get back. Not one to just rush in an elbow, Shepard kept pace before barreling into Jondum's chest and blocking his knee, as he caught her sides and tried to kick at her from her reckless move.

Though reckless, the Human Spectre suddenly punched the knees of her teacher inward and then used her leverage to drop and then launch up, causing the Salarian to lose footing enough that her next move proved the end. She locked her legs up, her elbows crunching his arms and making him let go as her legs came around the back of his shoulders and neck, before lifting herself and slamming her head into his. Using the opposite force to gain momentum, she grabbed the floor, twisted and slammed Jondum to the ground hard, trapping an arm under her and the other was too far away as she kept legs around his head. "Yield!"

With that, a stunned silence engulfed the ship. Emily got off her teacher. A low chuckle came from Garrus as his partner helped Jondum up. "Well played Commander Shepard. You have won and succeeded."

That got a smiled from the N7 soldier as she extended her hand; "Thank you for the lessons."

"I enjoyed them, you are an excellent student."

Garrus looked the others on the ship; "You owe me fifty credits each." A few groans came from the crew.

As they were docking, the two were getting patched up for being a little too rough to just be normal. Jondum was staring straight ahead. "Are you sure that you want to do this? I have heard many disconcerting things about this... Initiative. And about the N7 you want to talk to. Alec has been preaching about AI in the way he wants to ignore galactic law."

"I believe AI can be reasoned with and cooperative, so did my brother." Turning her head and looking to her teacher. "Though I understand why we cannot just make them and trust we've programmed them correctly. Caution is always required, no matter who makes what... But Synthetic Life should never be seen as just another enemy. I believe we can coexist, one day, so I hope to see it in my lifetime."

"That was not my question."

Chuckling softly, Emily stood up. "I'm sure about seeing what all this is about. Besides, the Initiative is calling for every living being, be they human or Turian, even Batarian. So there will be others investigating and trying to figure out if it's the real deal, I just want to be one of the first."

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

Arcturus station, where the fifth alliance fleet commanded by Admiral Hackett resides. The station sat perfectly at the center close by several mass relays where the fleet and the SSV Aconcagua can be called when needed. Garrus whistled gazing out the window; "So Admiral Hackett lives here."

"Yup," Emily peered out beside the Turian; "Best place for the fifth fleet in case any emergency happens."

Jondum nodded in approval; "You humans are good at strategy, being so close to so many relays, it gives your fleet amazing reach."

"And timing, considering we're now being called in to help out with the mess with the Geth." She turned to Jondum Bau. "What do you plan on doing now, Bau?"

The Salarian looked around. "I've got a few things to look for and to talk to a few of your Admirals about your progress. After that, I'll be on my way and to my next mission."

The Turian sniper shook the Salarian's hand. "Thank you for allowing me passage with Shepard. It was... an experience, seeing how Salarian command is different."

"It was my pleasure to get to know both of you. I hope to see more of your exploits in the future." Bau shook the Turian's hand as the ship docked in one of the hangers of the station.

Exiting the craft they were met by Hackett himself who stood at attention; "Shepard, Vakarian. Spectre Jondum Bau correct?"

The Salarian nodded; "Yes, it is an honor to meet you, Admiral Hackett."

"Feeling is mutual; you three arrived just in time." He gestured for them to follow.

As they did, Shepard was wondering what this was about. As they walked, Hackett spoke up. "You wanted to talk to some of the ones making the higher decisions in the Initiative, and one is currently here. Formerly a part of our special ops, an N7, and one of the only three known humans to gain Biotics without dying as adults. He's currently here to collect some volunteers to take back to Earth for orientation about the prospects." He stopped and turned to them. "On the record, he's a brilliant soldier and we'll miss his expertise." With the silence and nod, they knew he wasn't about to publically tell the off-record stuff. "He's not seen his son yet, we're going to his station to intercept."

"_The only one of the three left alive, Ryder wasn't it? I wonder why he's in with the Initiative._" Shepard hummed in thought as she tried to remember the little she knew about the name Ryder.

"If I read my history right, Alec Ryder was with Jon Grissom's task force," Jondum mentioned; "They were the first humans to use a mass relay."

Hackett gave a nod; "You are correct. He was one of the first N7 next to Kushina Uzumaki."

Now Emily remembered the Ryder name. And mentally winced. "Surprised they let Alec Ryder on here."

"His duties as a soldier of the Alliance weren't forgotten, not by me anyway. I allowed him on board, least I could do. Though not sure about this whole Initiative."

A few moments later they managed to get up to where the son was. Hackett led them to a small corner of the station. "Corporal Scott Ryder?"

One of the men in full armor turned, saw the Admiral, and walked up, saluting "Yes sir!"

"Your helmet son," Hackett mentioned, which brought the helmet off to show a young brown-haired man. "You look tired, shift going long?"

"Not at all, Sir. Nothing's been going on, more so I've been standing around doing nothing but watch. Sir. Uh, who's all here with you?"

Taking the queue, Shepard put a handout. "Emily Shepard. N7 operative and Spectre agent. This is Garrus, a friend of mine. And Jondum Bau, the best Salarian Spectre."

Shock etched on Scott's face before regaining composure and saluted; "Honor to meet you, ma'am. I also heard some of you Officer Vakarian." He looked at Jondum; "Never heard of you."

"That's a good thing."

Garrus chuckled; "Hopefully whatever you heard of me was good."

The Admiral gave Scott a look; "Where is Alec?"

"Uh, dad went to the mess hall, he figured it was the best place to look for folks who wish to join. That and reminiscing with some of the people here."

"Sound right." Hackett grunted before turning to Emily and Garrus; "Shepard you can take Vakarian to go meet Alec, Corporal Ryder go with them. I have some business with Spectre Bau."

Seeing the Salarian walk off with Hackett, Emily smiled. "Well, you heard him. Mess hall A, D, or H? Those are the closest to this side of the station."

"I believe he went to D, Ma'am." Getting the signal to follow as she walked, he kept up best he could. "Uh, pardon me for asking, but what's this all about?"

Choosing to keep the real mission secret, Shepard kept it short. "Short answer, classified. The formal answer I can speak of? We're here to see how the human side of the Initiative is going, and what exactly Garson needs to make their deadline, which recently went up sooner than expected."

"And we're here to talk to Alec about a couple of minor details about his... involvement," Garrus added as he was behind the Corporal.

The three made it to the Mess hall, and they came in to see Alec in the middle of a big speech. "You should know that this isn't some random ask, it's an opportunity of a lifetime. You can become even greater than you are now, make a future for yourself by building it on actual uninhabited, yet virtually paradise compared to our current situation. We've collected data that suggest the worlds we see in Andromeda are vacations all day long, but we can't get there without experts in many fields. And of course, we need adventurous spirits that would boldly go into the unknown! Explore the unexplored! That's our goal!"

The man proved to be one hell of an orator as he had quite a few soldiers gather around while he spoke. Scott sighed; "Dad always knew how to sway crowds."

How he spoke had gotten Garrus's attention; "You two close?"

The corporal scratched the back of his head; "My sister Sara is more than I am. Family stuff."

Patting the young man's side Garrus' eyes shone a look of understanding. He knew full well what that was like.

Emily cleared her throat loud enough to make every turn and quickly salute. Alec as well; "Commander Shepard! I wondered if I'd ever get to meet the famed hero of Elysium." The former N7 came over and extended his hand; "I met your brother several years ago, as well as knew his mother. They were damn good soldiers."

"Thank you," Emily gave a nod; "Mind if we speak within private?"

Garnering a nod Alec looked back to the crowd; "If any of you want to get a hold of me, I'll still be here for another hour or two."

Finding a quiet section of the station nearby, as Garrus handled talking to Scott a little bit away, the dark-haired hero crossed her arms. "Before we get to business, you said you've met my brother and his mother. Naruto's only ever seen you once, and he said his evaluation of you was... More along the lines of being way too ambitious to be safe, though you had good ideals. Reports are less than praiseworthy." Knowing her mission had to be kept secret, she still had one thing she could do to complete it, as well as find more information on Kushina. "I'm willing to let firsthand experience judge my views on you. I need some information, and you've asked for help with the Initiative on behalf of the big boss, Jian Garson. I'm not about to hop on and jump ship out of this galaxy, but if the Initiative is serious then it may be a worthwhile endeavor. Seeing as my word carries some weight if you can show me everything going on in the initiative and tell me about Kushina, depending on what that all entails, I'll endorse the Initiative myself and recommend several experts in fields I think you'll need. Deal?"

Alec was no idiot, he knew something was up, and the info dump she gave was nothing short of a sales pitch he knew very well how to give himself. However, knowing this woman to be honorable and even sympathetic to AI idealism, he knew he could trust her halfway. "Alright, Shepard. But on one condition." Getting her attention, he smirked. "As good as I am with technological advancement, I need a fresh pair of eyes and ideas. If you can help me finish designs for my ambitious projects, I'll even get you into the test Ark we have that is orbiting the moon."

Consider her interest peeked but kept her composure; "Alright, keep talking."

"The Initiative is exactly as Jian said. Colonization in the Andromeda galaxy."

Emily crossed her arms; "One hell of an endeavor. And to do all that while we are still exploring the Milky Way."

"True, there is a lot we still have not seen here. But there are those who have always wondered what is beyond the Milky Way. We have all seen and heard of those galaxies, but there are those like myself who have always felt the need to actually go there and see them with my own eyes. And by what I have seen, a lot of others see that too."

"And about the lifespans of us who may not be able to live through the thing normally? Cryogenics and stasis haven't been the most reliable yet. Heard they've made some headway but not enough to make any kind of argument on using it even for general use, let alone the kind of travel you're talking about."

"One of the many challenges we seek to fix before we leave." Alec huffed in amusement. "Nothing worth doing has ever been easy or without risk. We know the dangers; we let everyone know about those dangers. We may be hoping to get out of here in the next year or two, but we're not leaving until we've got most hiccups hammered out. Nothing about this journey is going to be perfect, but we'll make sure it's as safe as possible getting there. After that, whatever dangers we may face, we'll need the right people for phase one."

Shepard smiled a bit and sighed. "Alright. Well, you show me instead of telling me, then we'll see where that takes us. Gather your volunteers and get us in the ship back to earth, introduce me to Garson, and let's work on getting things sorted out." She shook his hand. "I'll be waiting with Garrus out here."

"Won't be but an hour, I'll finish my recruitment and we'll be on Earth in no time." He left to do just that as Scott walked up. "Show these two to the ship son, we'll meet your sister planet side tomorrow."

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

An hour flew by fast with Emily and Garrus taking the shuttle with Alec to see the Ark Hyperion. Apparently, Jien was there and not on earth, which gave Alec the lead to skip Earth and call a shuttle for his daughter. Its construction was being based near to the moon, Emily and Garrus got a good look. "Well, you don't see that every day," The Turian offered.

More than one-and-a-half kilometers long and weighing 17 million metric tons, the ship was massive. Walking beside them Alec grinned; "Beautiful isn't it?"

"You don't build something like that cheaply," Emily commented.

Alec nodded; "You don't, Jien Garson poured a great deal of her money to pull this off."

Their ship docked to the port-station connected to the Hyperion. As the doors opened they were greeted by a woman with short black hair and Asian descent. The figurehead of the entire Initiative, Jien Garson extended out her hand; "Never thought I would get to meet two saviors of the Citadel. Welcome Commander Shepard, Officer Vakarian to the Hyperion Ark."

Shaking the hand offered, both greeted her sternly. "We are honored. How much of this thing is even done?" Shepard looked around at the rough interior of their docking station.

"Central mass, outer hull and a tenth of the interior structure. We're building it from the skeleton and outside inward, engines to the nose. Not much is walkable yet, but I can still show you around. Follow me." She turned top Aleca with a nod and they led the others forward.

Alec explained best he could, considering he was still technically new as well. "A few months back, Garson extended an offer. I refused at first; prospects seemed to show the project taking decades. Later, I get a face to face and she's showing me every projection I ever saw was incorrect. The Hyperion is the first of its kind, but there will be more just like it soon enough. Hyperion is the Human Ark; it'll have twenty thousand human colonists, with the best medical field experts, of any species, on board for when we hit Andromeda."

"I've only heard rumors of this project in the Hierarchy. I'm guessing this is only a human endeavor?" Garrus was wondering, as something bugged him about the scope.

Hitting the main sector, they watched as Jien pulled up the specs of the ship so far, and the rough plans. "The blueprint is going to be for every Ark that follows. Seeing as this is a private project, it's hard to get global, or even galactic, funding for more than one. Mister Vakarian, I assure you I don't plan to have Humans be the only ones coming along on this ride. As Alec said, we have a mixed crew of species of specialists for when we enter our nearest neighboring Galaxy."

Nodding, the older man smiled. "This is my job, getting those specialists. As well as extending the offer forward to other races. Not an easy prospect, mind you. The Turian government is skeptical, the Asari look at it as too ambitious a project, Salarians are saying there's not enough data to justify the safety of their journey, and other races are giving me the low-key version of telling me to screw myself. At least right now. If we cannot prove it works from our own obstacles, they won't risk going into any plans that may potentially kill them too. After the Battle of the Citadel, we're filling in for the lost firepower there as is, making relations a little... Tense."

Well, not that it wasn't justified. This entire endeavor was one hell of a gamble for anyone. It would take one hell of a pitch to get the Turians involved. And Garrus knew his people would expect results. "I could try something if you're extending this out to all races. Least with my people, no promise if they will listen." Garrus shrugged.

Jien looked grateful; "We do, the Initiative is more than about humanity. It is about all races who want to go beyond the Milky Way. See more, even if we haven't seen all of this galaxy." She rubbed her arms; "But we have hit snags along the way."

"Between the Anti-A.I. sentiment and other matters. Things are slow for us," Alec admits.

"Considering your push for A.I., which is banned and after the Geth incident it's not exactly going to be unbanned just because you have other ideas, I can understand that." The dark-haired Spectre of the group crossed her arms. "So, the question becomes this. I've come here to find out more about what this entire Initiative has to offer, and help make things smoothly move forward, so what's the plan?"

Jien looked at Alec, and then to her arm as she opened an Omni-tool holographic image simulation. "The plan, if everything goes right, is this; we have two vessels building. The Hyperion, showing we can transfer many colonists at once. Then this one, the main hub for every race, and galactic politics. It's relatively straightforward, we send the hub first, and it'll fly off at a speed slightly faster than all the other ships being sent, so it reaches Andromeda a year earlier. During that year, the hub, which we will only be able to make half of, will then start exploring and building the other half of itself to be ready to accept the Arks that get sent with it. We're still figuring out if the Arks should go straight there, or try and find potential worlds; we're playing with very old imaging of the system."

"Rumors have it, there's someone who's been trying to make a super telescope, to be able to see outside into dark space further and get as accurate information as soon as possible. We're still trying to find out if the rumors are true, and if they are true we try and use this thing to get images of the planets in the system and their appearance right now. Currently, we're seeing thousands, tens of thousands, of years old planets. Who knows what Andromeda is like right this moment. If we can get more accurate information on the planets today, we can find out where the Arks can search when they get there."

"Yes, that's one plan after the fact." The Asian woman sighed. "But we cannot move without testing, and we've been unable to successfully test out our new FTL drive. The current prototypes have... mildly putting it, blown out."

That garnered Shepard and Vakarian's attention; "What's happened?" Questioned the Spectre

"Tainted Eezo," Alec groaned out; "It caused a mess with our engines to the point they blew."

The detective in Garrus stirred; "Deliberate?"

Jien shook her head; "We don't know. The repairs will take time, but we still need Eezo, but we need to know about the shipment sent to us and if they might try again."

Garrus was on full blast. "Tainted Eezo means black market and under the table purchases for cheap." In his head, he thought of the one case he had about it. "If you did buy from illegal sources, why?"

Taking a deep breath, Jien sighed heavily. "Because, the scope of the project means buying large amounts of Eezo for the journey, and because this is a private project, not a galactic one that's being supported by larger forces at work, large purchases would be troublesome for many day-to-day refuels and rebuilds of fleets everywhere. We can't just buy half the stock of every station to get these Arks off the ground, and we need to test these drive cores in every shape and size. We did business with someone from the Citadel after our plea for massive purchases was denied. We were sort of desperate to get the results so we could gain a few more investors and get this project spread wider than just one Ark. If you could find out what happened, and if we should find another source, then we would be grateful."

Emily tapped her chin; "Hmm..." She turned to Garrus; "What do you think?"

"Well, if I was still C-SEC I'd reported this." His mandible twitched; "But I can tell these are good people. So, how can we help?"

Jien was taken aback; "You want to help us?"

"I am no fan of the whole A.I. bit, but I can respect people with dreams. Even if they are crazy." The Turian quipped.

Emily gave a nod; "What do you need Jien?"

Speaking on her behalf, the older human man with them showed them the manifest. "We need to know the source of this tainted shipment and see if it was a one-off thing, or if it's a bigger problem. This will help you track it down, our contact on the Citadel who did the deal is in the Presidium, or what's still left of it from the Geth attack. I've got a few things I need to do, bring in my kids is one and trying to get more experts in will be another."

"Speaking of your kids, what's a girl got to do about getting a hello when coming aboard?" Behind them was a young woman with fatigues and a pistol on her hip. Seeing the Spectre in dark hair turn towards her, the young woman instantly saluted. "Sorry! Honored to meet you, Shepard. Uh, didn't know my biggest role model was aboard..."

A snort chuckle came from Garrus while a sigh escaped Alec; "Commander Shepard, Officer Vakarian; my daughter Sara. As you noticed I was a bit busy kiddo."

While her eyes much like Scott's matched their father's, Sara seemed to have gotten her mother's looks as she had a rich Indian skin tone with long brunette hair in a ponytail. Amusement still claimed the Turian; "I thought twins were identical?"

"Scott and I are fraternal twins," Sara clarified; "And I'm the oldest by a minute."

Jien glanced at Emily; "She loves reminding him of that." Having been around the twins she was used to their quirks.

"I never thought I'd get the reason I joined the Alliance... Besides dad too a little." Sara came overextending her hand with a carefree grin.

"Ouch," Alec deadpanned.

Well, at least she did not act like Conrad if nothing else. "Pleasure to meet you, Sara."

After the moment of introductions came to an end, Alec spoke up to his daughter. "Shepard here was just offering to give us a hand with something. Sorry if we have to cut things short for the moment, but she will be seeing us through some of the start-up work for the Initiative, so stick around and you'll maybe get to ask your big questions."

Not exactly one for being shoved aside from her goals, Sara crossed her arms. "Well, why can't I help? Might give me more time to ask those questions as I help them instead of stay here. Besides, until we actually GET to Andromeda, my skillset isn't useful."

Jien saw nothing wrong with it; "Wouldn't hurt."

"As much as I would, Sara needs to fully study the Pathfinder program we are working on. In case if something happens to me," Alec reasoned.

Sara faintly glared; "I hate it when you talk like that."

"But it is the truth, we don't really know what is in Andromeda. And anything can happen; from wildlife to sentient locals who are not friendly. Have to be prepared for anything, and you, Scott, and Cora are the three people I trust most to take over in case the worst happens."

Staring for a moment, a long wary sigh escaped Sara's lips; "I got it. But we're not losing you the first day there. That's an order mister."

"Yes ma'am," Alec chuckled.

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

Bidding farewells, Garrus and Emily go over all the information Jien and Alec gave them about the Tainted Eezo. "We're going to have to go to Omega. The only place you can get this much Eezo without the red tape," Garrus reasoned. "And most likely going to have to inform the boss of Omega we won't burn her station down in case of a fight."

Aria T'loak... Asari crime boss who has been ruling that station for decades.

"As much as I prefer Asari culture sometimes, there will always be individuals that go completely crazy. Aria's infamous in the Terminus Systems. Though only by name and reputation out here, whatever information we have is going to be short compared to the truth. We have to keep our guards up." As they got into the shuttle out, Emily started getting as much information from her Spectre rank as possible on Aria. "Know anyone on the way we can grab and help us?"

"Not off the top of my head. We're in this one alone." Though fate was tempted to prove him wrong, as someone came into the shuttle with them. "I know you... You're Hinata's cousin?"

Standing with a bag in hand, Neji smiled. "Yep. Heard you were aboard, Shepard. Mind if I tag along?"

Thinking for a moment; "Why are you here Neji?"

"You no doubt heard about the Initiative. Ino and I decided to try it."

Garrus had never seen Shepard look utter speechless before. Her mouth moved for a moment before finally speaking; "Why?"

"Losing Naruto hurt us all. But her more than most given how close they were even when they were kids," Neji cast his eyes downward; "I think she wants to get away from everything. So I decided to come along. Keep an eye on her."

"I see..." The weird thing was, she knew it was true. She could never bind the group together like her brother. "_If only I had been there more... stronger for everyone instead of focus on this whole path with taking down Cerberus…_" Getting out of her thoughts, she turned to the long-haired man. "So, you're giving up on N7?"

"Of course not. Technically I'll never be able to make the rank officially here if I leave, but I plan to learn every bit of the ropes from Alec. Though he's retired, he still holds rank and took on the apprenticeship for the program. You know from N4 onwards requires someone teaching you the advanced courses." As he sat, the ship started taking off. "Choosing to go this route seemed the best choice for me, whether Ino came or not. She's with the main hub though, essential psychological expert for the long ride there."

Garrus nodded; "Imagine they will need people like her, once they grasp what they have done."

Neji nodded; "So what can I do to help?"

"We're tracking the tainted eezo Jien Garson acquired." Emily transferred a copy of the information Neji's Omni-tool. "We're likely going to Omega."

"And if we don't get stopped, we should be there in half an hour, though since we are going in as hidden as possible, we'll likely be there in an hour, earliest." Garrus sat back and chose to rest up. "It'll be interesting to see what you can do."

Grabbing his bag, Neji started getting his gear out. "I'll get ready right now." It didn't take long as he got into a light suit. He slipped four different pistols, each a different make and model, around his body.

Seeing this got the Turian curious, but he kept silent as the three were going to the relay. Emily sat back as well. "Remember, keep our guards up and heads down."

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

Omega, the Terminus system equivalent of the Citadel. Formerly an enormous asteroid that was once mined by the Protheans. In the present-day, it is the central hub for criminal activity and organizations in the Omega Nebula. Coming out of their hyper jump, Shepard ship arrives near the station.

Gazing out the window the trio saw hundreds of defense turrets installed on floating rocks around the station; "Aria does not play around does she?" Neji question.

"No, this is her kingdom and Omega goes by her rules. Follow those and don't rock the boat as you humans say, your fine." Garrus remarked; "But screw her over and she does come down harsh."

Emily grunted; "Well she sounds pleasant."

Docking in, the three got off their ship and were greeted by a Batarian who was armed to the teeth. "Shepard, welcome to Omega. Aria is waiting to see you, wondering what brings an active Council Spectre here on her turf without warning."

"Pretty quick on the uptake, why grill me in the first place? I figure there are more dangerous customers here than just me."

"Aria makes it a point to keep eyes on everyone entering the system, not many can get past our identification scanners without at least something showing who they truly are. And sure, if the entire station wanted to hit an uproar of guns blazing against you then we'd sit back and watch. But as we do have rules here, you're involvement is a major concern, any Spectre who comes near this place gets the same treatment. Just be lucky you're being treated like a VIP. Aria won't wait too patiently, don't drag your feet too much." The Batarian turned and ignored even Garrus' attempt to ask what that all meant.

Neji rubbed his eyes. "I'm starting to feel like this will be even more of a hassle."

Emily glanced at Garrus; "Guess we don't keep her waiting."

The trio strolled towards the center of Omega, the dance club called Afterlife. "I get the feeling this is more than just a dance club," Neji spoke with discomfort from the loud music as they entered through the doors.

"Have the credits you get whatever your heart wants. Party, get drunk, have sex, make illegal business deals, and maybe kill one or two people before leaving," Garrus dryly remarked as they walked through the crowded entrance hall. The music grew progressively louder till they finally entered the main bar.

Having at least four or five floors going upwards, Afterlife was a massive bar with all manner of people of nearly every race doing whatever they pleased. Lights and steam blew around on the small stages where scantily clad Asari or female humans' dancers moved with the flow of the music.

"I spot about six looking at us," Garrus quipped

Emily snorted; "Make it eight."

"Aria is clever enough to mask her guards with the crowd," Neji addressed as they walked through the people.

Nearing the bar Emily spoke to the Krogan barkeep who directed them to where the queen of Omega awaited them. Walking around the bar they came to a flight of steps that led to a large and long seat. Sitting on its center with a posture that screamed authority, respect, and sensual-ness; with blue eyes glowing at the trio. Aria's blue lips curved upwards. Shore a revealing black suit with a white long-sleeved jacket which was opened, showing off her womanly figure proudly.

She leaned against her sofa with one leg over the other in a seductive manner. Around her were at least eight fully armed guards with enough firepower to start a small war.

"Commander Emily Shepard of the Alliance Navy and Council Spectre," Aria spoke in a sensual aggressive tone. "War Hero of Elysium and battle of the Citadel."

Stopping at the base of the steps Emily stood in front; "You're well informed."

"Well, when you run a multi-million credit operation like mine it is best to know who your enemies and friends are," Aria slowly stood.

"And where am I?"

The Asari chuckled as she slowly stepped down to them; "Depends on your business here. Has the council decided to come after little old me?"

"You're not on their radar at the moment," Garrus responded beside his partner.

"Well C-SEC would know wouldn't they Officer Vakarian?" Aria quipped at the Turian in a dry manner. She stopped at the final step now staring fully at Emily did the same. "So why are you here Shepard?"

Normally Shepard would get information out of thugs and criminals with a gun in hand, but being in the den meant needing to be civil. "I'm here trying to track down something for some new friends. They were shopping the under market and got some very tainted Eezo, which we tracked back around here. We're just trying to find out who'd sabotage our friends, and get the Eezo that was promised. If you could point us in the right direction, we'd be very grateful."

The Queen of Omega stood a moment before scoffing, laughing as she was amused by the nature of the request. "I see, you're here to do some investigating and catch the bad guys, though you seem to know not to go after me. Your reputation proceeds you, Commander, what makes you think I want such high profile debate on my station? You're not exactly subtle enough to escape any transgressions of any gangs running around outside this neutral ground. And not everyone here... would be willing to help you in aiding that Initiative in any way whatsoever."

Out of the trio, only Neji's eyes raised for a moment before controlling his gaze. Emily kept her neutral look to Aria; "How about this. If this group happens to be a thorn in your side we remove them and you have everything of theirs. Except for the Eezo."

"Trying to appeal to me through business?" Aria leaned forward with her face inches from the Spectre; "You're daring."

"If it gets me to my target and you get your share, we're both happy."

Quiet for a long minute the Asari slowly stood straight. "Then you're just in luck. The group you are after happens to be a rather large annoyance as of late. They're piss ants compared to me but they pack strong firepower. So these dogs do bite." Aria turned as she went up the stairs; "Talk to my guard beside you, he will give you their location." She spun around taking her seat; "I don't offer favors easily, especially to those I don't know. But let us see what you can do, and maybe I might start liking you."

Emily gave a nod before looking over to the Turian guard who typed on his Omni-tool; "Here."

In a second Shepard's device glowed; "thanks."

"Enjoy Omega Shepard," Aria smirked as the trio left.

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

"Well that was about as pleasant as Krogan porn vids," Garrus grunted as they had left the club.

"You've watched that stuff?" Neji asked, weirded out but also curious.

That caught the Turian sniper off-guard, but he turned to the long-haired man. "Glimpses, stakeouts on some Krogan mercs who were wanted. They were watching as I watched their activities."

After leaving the club, Shepard stopped them. "Anyone notice we're going through somewhere that can easily be ambushed?" Bringing up the map for display, the party watched the pinpoint in the under-reaches of the station. It had a maze almost, and several corridors that were everywhere in the commercial districts. "Why do I feel like Aria wants us to fail?"

"Maybe because she wants everyone to fail? She's looking for profit and benefit. It's good for business if she takes a Spectre poking around out, and gain access to several places under rule of a rival gang." Garrus summarized as he looked through the map given. "But what we see isn't what it seems. There are several places we can go to be a lot more secure and do some recon."

Emily nodded; "Agreed, lets scout this place before we do anything."

"We will likely get into a firefight with whoever we will deal with," Neji remarked.

"Goes without saying," Emily tapped on her Omni-Tool; "Everyone all set?"

Garrus inspected his sniper rifle; "Whenever you are ready Shepard."

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

With the location they sought in another part of the station the trio took a transport close to their destination.

Being one to curiously question human culture, Garrus, as they were on their way to the deeper parts of the station near the bottom tips of the station away from the inner rock areas, looked to Neji. "So, you're an N7 in training? What rank are you? Why are you called an N3?"

Shepard answered herself on Neji's behalf on the technical stuff. "N7 is the highest rank of Special Operations, the training spans ranks one through six, and if you prove yourself in exceptional performance through the entire course you are given the final designation, N7. It is also the only rank that is shown on a uniform. Every other rank is there, but it's never visibly shown to anyone else. It's like leadership training, the higher the level of training the further you are along as an officer."

Nodding, Neji shrugged and continued. "And I only recently completed the third course. So, N3. But since I cannot advertise it, I am just Lieutenant Neji Hyuuga. Seeing as you know everyone, you can just call me Neji as everyone does."

Halfway there, Neji took out a pistol, and it was a very old iron pistol. Once again, their Turian team member was curious, as the man spun a cylinder in the middle of the revolver, making a smooth sound that rang gently in the buffered walls of their transport. Emily smiled. "You take that out when you're deep in thought, what's on your mind, Neji?"

A sigh escaped the man's lips; "Just trying to clear my head. Between this and Initiative just had a lot on my mind."

"You took one hell of a life choice leaving this galaxy for another one," Garrus quipped before gazing over at the man; "You know we will be long gone by the time you wake up once reaching Andromeda."

"I know, Ino knows as well. This wasn't a light-hearted decision." Neji nodded.

"And that is if the cryostasis even works. The amount of time under is going to be very dangerous. Years, decades, centuries... Lots of time for something to go wrong. I know Naruto's not around but... we'll miss you guys." Emily smiled sadly, as Neji smiled back, spinning the cylinder again.

Their transport stopped shy of their destination, the driver not going any further into, what he said, was Talon Territory. The Turian driver opened the doors and she spoke with a brief warning. "The Talons control the area between here and your marker, your best bet is to go down to the docking areas and find a way across to commercial without being seen. Good luck."

The trio hoped out and started down the streets. Knowing they were high profile, they had grabbed some robes to cover their features and armor and tried to keep a low profile as they kept apart and watching each other's backs. Garrus spotted some coordinated armored men walking around, but one had a sniper and it looked like the very model he wanted himself. "Nice, is that the newest Viper? Model 97B? Where does one get that kind of hardware without spending their left mandible?"

Emily rolled her eyes; "He won't need it after we're done."

"Fair point," Garrus mused.

"Looks like Talon have all manner of members. I see Human, Turian, Asari, Vorcha, and Krogan... This won't be easy." Neji stressed.

As they reached near the port, they were stopped by three of the gang, two Krogan, and a Human. "Haven't seen a group of humans with a Turian before. New to the area? Talon's don't like newcomers sneaking around in robes, especially this far into the market. Normally I rip them off, but I'm in a good mood, take them off and identify or we rough you up and force it out of you."

Emily looked between Garrus and Neji, "Well he asked politely." The C-SEC officer shrugged.

So much for the quiet route... Emily lifted the hood; "Commander Emily Shepard of the Alliance Navy and Council Spectres. Evening gentlemen."

"HOLY SH-" The human guard yelled as he and the Krogan drew their weapons, but were met with several shotgun shells from the human Spectre. Her shredder rounds tore into the guards like paper killing all three instantly.

"Think the rest heard that?" Garrus questioned.

The newfound riot of people around them would dictate they were heard, giving Emily no time to do anything but run. "Come on! Let's get to the commercial district in a hurry!" She was followed swiftly by the other two, all their robes falling as they grabbed their primary weapons.

The trio found some cover as several bullets rang out in their direction. "That got bad quickly." Neji quipped.

"Keeps your senses sharp as our old friend Wrex liked to say," Garrus remarked quickly, rising as the gunfire faded for a moment and took down several gang members via his sniper rifle.

Shepard ran ahead and gave them some cover to follow, as they made it to the docking area, Garrus peeked around for their way forward. Seeing the only way on foot was a maintenance shaft to a bridge, he groaned. "Not happening whilst under fire..." He returned to sniping some of the gang as Neji and their leader peeked as well. "Any ideas?" He said as he took out another head.

The Talons were still coming, and Neji saw that even more were rounding the outside walkways to get to them. "We need a plan, and we need it now!"

Pulling up the schematics given, the Spectre tried to figure out how they could get through the area. After a minute of failed findings, she looked around and glued her eyes on something dangerous. "Want a plan? I got one!"

Grabbing a grenade and running out, Shepard tossed it into the group, but it went off with a bright flash and disoriented everyone coming for them long enough for her to grab the docking console and hacked into it, programming it to swing in intervals with the rope of a crane hanging. "Time it and jump on! Garrus go!"

Knowing they needed to hurry, and having seen crazier plans before, the Turian quickly ran with intense speed before jumping right as the rope came towards him, grabbing on and swinging both feet hard until he jumped to the other side of the dock and landed on his ass, skidding a bit before turning and taking cover with his Sniper in hand.

With a reload and a sharp crack of the Sniper, Garrus started taking out those who were getting their senses back as Emily got Neji on the next swing, which just made it before having to take cover as well. As he turned he noticed he swung badly, and the rope was jiggling in all directions, causing the wing back to not fully extend. "Shit, DON'T JUMP!"

Too late. Shepard ran and with every ounce of momentum she could muster, as rifle fire was shooting into her shields, she ran in just the right way that her last step on the platform was planted right at the edge. Planting both feet and launching herself forward, she used her rifle to extend her reach and pressed the button to shrink the rifle down to storage size which caught the rope in its vice. As her swing came to its end, she activated the rifle to get to full size again and was sent flying to the platform, rolling onto her knee and side to skid along her back to reduce the impulse.

Garrus grunted as he took out an enemy; "Now you're showing off!"

His partner said nothing as she threw the rope to Neji who caught it and leaped near his team. "We got some breathing room." The usually calm man spoke in a heightened tone.

"Make it count people!" Emily exclaimed

"How's this for making it count?" Having needed to get their escape to go without much more thermal clip loss, Garrus was thinking to use the above cargo systems. He aimed at the rails and just as one box zipped past he shot the connector and the box fell, causing the contents, being liquid of some sort, to burst and spray on everyone, causing them to slip and stick together, causing them to wildly fight each other to get back to chasing them.

"Was told you rivaled Naruto with long shots like that, good to see it come in handy. Let's roll!" Neji refilled his pistols and the three ran and snuck into the commercial district, trying to find any place to hide or any person to help. Though they all knew this was Omega, counting on help was almost like counting on suicide.

Unbeknownst to the trio and Talon group. One lone figure kept to the shadows observing the battle since it began. The person's gaze never wavered from Emily and her team as they fought despite being overwhelmed. "Impressive bunch of kids," the figure spoke with a sultry feminine tone; "Better keep the schedule in order, and this bunch stays alive."

Two Asari swords in each of the figures' hands became visible for a moment along with a hooded masked face of a woman. Crimson eyes stared on for a moment before blinking and turned sapphire.

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

Emily huffed as she leaned against her cover beside Garrus and Neji; "How is your ammo?"

"Thankfully at five each gun. It'll get us to our goal, but the return may be a problem if we can't grab ammo from some of our enemies." Neji checked the heat from his pistols. "And I have seven shots left for one and five for the other."

Shepard recovered her breathing and started at the schematic. "We're getting closer. The one who's behind the Eezo shipment is close. Now that I think about it, Aria never did tell us who we were looking for... I'm starting to think it may be the leader of the Talons."

"Or their outsourced supply chain." The group had their guns up and pointed at the newest arrival, and it was a Quarian with their hands up, and covered in a robe himself. "Forgive me, but... Shepard, right? The Flotilla is singing your praises for fighting off the Geth forces, and for helping one of our own. You and your brother are turning into very friendly names."

"And just who might you be? And what do you mean by what you said earlier about an outsourced supply chain?" The investigator in the Turian was coming through,

"We don't have much time, you stirred the pot here... Come with me, I'll hide you and tell you everything, I swear."

Stepping up, Shepard frowned. "Name first, then we follow."

"Varta'Lhazri Vas Shellen. The Shellen is one of our live ships." Seeing the crew look to each other a moment, he noticed Emily disengage her weapon, causing them all to and he quickly opened his door. "In, to the left is another door to the basement. Hurry!"

The trio did not need to be told twice as they ran in and Varta'Lhazri closed the door behind them. Going through a short hallway they reach the second door the Quarian mentioned. Opening it led to stairs that went down to a large lit room with all manner of machines, firearms, and armor. As the trio entered Varta'Lhazri closed the door locking it. "You can relax here for a moment."

Garrus watched the Quarian walk passed them to a workbench and a stool he now sat on; "How did you know where we are." Varta'Lhazri pointed to a monitor system on the sidewall.

"The boss is a little paranoid."

Hearing that, Neji looked around at the arsenal. "And what are you supposed to be? Quarian's don't normally become criminal entities."

"Not one. I'm the kind of guy who's trading my skills for my people. Notice I said what my ship name was." He looked to Shepard. "Knowing a Quarian yourself, you know the distinction."

Seeing her companions look to her, even Garrus, the dark-haired woman sighed. "If you're telling us the truth, then your ship name means you're still Vas. Crew of. You're not banished to Omega, you're trading skills for what exactly?"

"Anything my manifesto requires. New ventilation systems, food, materials to fix breaches, or build rooms to standard. Anything the Fleet asks of me. Thing is, our ships date back to the uprising, obsolete components can no longer be purchased legally. Forced to buy them here, the black market and the like. My skills are in repairing weaponry, most of my orders come from the Talons right now, but there's been a surge with three other gangs, Blood Pack is getting very aggressive in this area."

"And your boss?" Neji had to ask.

"Hanar hired me to run the background to their stall. They take what I get done to the market, in exchange I get to live here and get the shopping list filled and sent back to the Flotilla. Enough about me... What brings you three to this area?" He grabbed a gauntlet to start finishing as he listened to them, his second nature as he stared at them with precise work being done on the gauntlet.

"Wait..." Garrus blinked while his mandibles twice; "The boss of the gang is a Hanar..."

The Quarian shrugged; "Omega has all kinds. And no he is utterly no fighter, but his guards are the muscle; two highly trained Drell. But back to my question."

Emily check her shotgun; "We were tracking tainted Eezo that was purchased from-"

"That weird Andromeda Initiative." Varta'Lhazri interrupted as he remembered nodding; "They paid literally half a fortune for it."

The looks he received told him they were suspecting him, he stood up, still working on the gauntlet. "Been here for twenty years on my mission, you don't survive Omega's gang areas without picking up how to keep your head low and your ear to the vine. A shipment that huge, with a payment like that given, it's hard not to notice. I'm going to guess you are wanting to talk to the one in charge of that operation, and either get the credits back or get the Eezo before it's tainted from their source. Right?"

"Got it in one. To be specific, get the promised shipment."

As the gauntlet powered up, the Quarian set it down in a box and grabbed a datapad. "You'll be walking into the heaviest fortification this side of Afterlife. I would not recommend it."

Their resident C-Sec officer stepped up. "We've handled worse. We're not leaving until we complete this assignment."

A moment of silence went by before Garrus received the datapad from Varta. "You'll need this. If you are serious, then this will get you past the storage facilities lock. Holds a code that will break their security for a minute and a half. I advise against it, but..." He looked to Shepard. "Knowing you, my advice will be ignored."

"Thanks for the warning though," Emily gave a nod.

"You and your crew did more for my people than anyone in years with Admiral Rael'Zorah's daughter. As far as I am concerned, you are a friend." He gestured towards a metal shelf; "If you need ammo take some."

Neji looked grateful; "We are in your debt."

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

After leaving Varta and his basement, the group saw the area was crawling with gang members. Taking the silent approach they stuck to the shadows to reach their destination.

A moment of surveillance and checking around every corner, they met up at a level higher for advantage in case they found out. Marking the map of every placement, the team looked at their option. Neji hummed. "That is strange... Lighter guard than usual on the outside. This means..."

Seeing him grimace, Garrus was curious but Shepard sighed heavily and answered. "They either have this place ready to surround us inside, or they have more than enough guards inside. And seeing the amount of Vorcha, Krogan, even Batarian guards, we're seeing a lot of fighters. Too bad we don't have a Biotic on our side. So... The easiest entrance is the side, catch them off guard we can take them out quietly."

"A suggestion, Shepard?" Garrus was looking through his scope at the building. "Take the back entrance. It's got shipments preparing to leave, empty trucks to collect and source out."

"If we snatch the trucks, it would help..."

"Did you forget the goal? If we want to stay on the good side of Aria, we need to take out their commanding officer, and secure our Eezo." She grabbed her rifle. "This means, we fight through them and set up a defense. We hold their stock hostage, and take out the one in charge of this operation. We do that, we call in our ride to get the shipment and we have Aria's guys come to get their share."

Garrus adjusted his scope; "So the hard way."

"Pretty much."

"And I thought Naruto was the crazy one," Neji droned shaking his head.

"Without him, there's a void needing to be filled. Believe it or not, crazy is how we got things done." Shepard geared both her weapons and took one in each hand. "Garrus, you keep us cover till we get in, then round the other way to flank anyone trying to surround us. Neji, you take the back entrance and stop every truck from ever trying to leave. When we're inside all together we barricade and hold the position, making their only entry without tearing down walls to be the front entrance."

"Solid plan. Just say when." Neji got his higher power pistols out and started going around the perimeter until he was in position. Knowing the usual signal was the first shot fired.

Looking at her Turian friend, Emily smirked. "Was thinking after we get through this and find out more about the Initiative, we settle down for a few days. Try and get into contact with the others you know?"

"Last I checked, everyone was either too busy or contacting them required too much firepower. But it would be good to know how Wrex is, that Krogan madman grew on me." He kept an eye on the revolving patrols.

Sitting up and ready to jump, his commanding officer and friend nodded. "Does wonders when you laugh together. Take out the nearest guard to the side entrance, and then anyone on Neji's approach. Fire when ready."

A moment of silence, tension filling their bones as Garrus locked in on the side entrance. Seeing the Guard turn to stand at the door again, he fired and took the Vorcha's head clean off, signaling the start of their raid. Jumping over the railing, Shepard came in and ran for that entrance, Neji doing the same on his side for the back as Garrus popped a second head.

Into the clearing of the storage facility, the human Spectre unloaded her rifle into the Batarian with a shotgun trying to find where the sniper was before firing her shotgun slug into his chest, blowing him a new hole before sprinting into the side entrance, shotgun in both hands as she unloaded into two guards trying to get out to provide cover. With rapid-fire enabled, she overheated her shotgun and killed three of them before heading to switch to her rifle, ducking behind cover.

With the Guards surrounding her inside the facility, she grabbed a grenade. Looking over cover for a second, she saw Neji run in and toss an EMP grenade, knocking the trucks out and causing everyone's, even her own, shields to break. That gave the white-eyed man the chance to shoot and kill every guard in his sight, kill shots all as he ran behind his cover. As the effects of the EMP stopped, with auxiliary power turning back on and their shields rebooting, the two circled the facility and made sure no one else was alive.

Thankfully the inside was done, but a dozen outside guards managed to break through Garrus' cover, causing them to hide behind a crate that, surprisingly, they didn't want to shoot. "Get out from behind there, or we'll blast this whole place to rubble! I said NOW!"

Sighing, Neji reloaded his clips. "Sounds like a Krogan, could be wrong though."

They were, as Shepard looked and then was shocked. "Well, that's one Drell I never thought was possible. Heard they were all lean and mean, not hulking." Said Drell was a dark purple in skin color, with huge upper body mass and a giant claw hammer.

He slammed the hammer down on the ground. "You have thirty seconds before I come over there and smash some skulls!"

"Hey, how about you bring your boss over and we talk this out! Because I've got a few grenades here ready to blow this place up right this minute if you don't bring him out to explain himself!" Shepard was not kidding and waved a few Grenades. However, they were non-lethal grenades like shock and flash grenades more than anything.

The hulking Drell did not thankfully notice as he backed off; "Alright, alright! Just don't blow us to oblivion!" He peered to the gang; "However we are not just showing you the Boss until you and your team show yourselves."

"Well tough, we are waiting till he shows up," Emily quipped back.

Seeing how this would drag on, the Drell reluctantly complied as he told someone to get Boss Kirryn. After a long and uncomfortable ten minutes, the doors of the room opened as a Hanar floated into the room with another Drell who was blue in skin color holding an SMG with an Asari sword on his hip.

"This one is most annoyed," Kirryn remarked in their race's usual monotone; "It demands you reveal yourself after causing so much damage to its territory."

Emily glanced at Neji who nodded; "Alright, you guys shoot me these explosives will detonate."

Standing up, Shepard held up her arm with her Omni-Tool on, and the other with her shotgun ready. "You sold a rather large amount of Eezo to the Initiative. They want the promised quality because you gave them rotten garbage. You give us the good stuff as promised, we leave here without blowing up your profits. That's the deal."

"This one knows you are lying. How you believe you will leave here alive perplexes this one to no end, as you will not survive. It will not bow down to your demands without resistance."

"Then we all die here. You kill us, this place blows. You refuse, we fight until this place blows. You give in and we all survive. Choose now, because I won't give you much choice. One-shot to the head the moment I want you to die, faster than one can say jellyfish. You have ten seconds to choose..." Shepard looked at her Omni-Tool, it was Garrus messaging her. She smirked seeing his confirmation. "Hurry, big boy. What will it be?"

A moment of silence until the Drell growled. "We won't let you get away with this! You'll die-!" A tentacle raised to stop his speech.

"Calm Dranih, while you and your brother Telim can handle anything thrown at you. This one does not want to lose profits or territory to Aria."

The Drell with the SMG glanced up; "We can't just let them walk out of here Boss. The other gangs will see this as weakness and close in."

The Hanar swayed; "Very true Telim, we are at an impasse... Commander Emily Shepard, one of the two first human Spectres."

"So what will it be Kirryn?" Emily remarked back

"One does not simply let the opposition have their way. Omega is not like Council Space. This one... Declines, you shall not gain access to our mining facility." The Hanar floated backward.

"So be, it, you stupid JELLYFISH!" Shepard tossed a Grenade, making everyone jump back to get away from the explosion. Only it never came as it just popped smoke around the area the moment a shot was heard and a body thumped on the ground.

Activating a visor, Shepard sprinted forward and shoved her shotgun into the chest of one person and blowing them through before turning down another that bumped into her, causing the entire place to erupt into random gunfire as she could see through the smoke through her visor.

Neji, with a similar visor, went into action as he stood and threw another Smoke grenade and ran in to kill another couple of members. Over comms, Garrus spoke up. "Company, that Hanar is down but his gang is still piling in!"

"Let's grab our objective and take down as many as we can then get the hell out of here!" Emily yelled ducking from a punch from a Batarian. His four eyes grew as the barrel of her shotgun was under his chin. His head exploded as his body fell, Emily poured on the pressure to anyone getting in her way.

Easier said than done, as the trucks were only half loaded, which meant they had to multi-task. Neji started loading one box with Emily covering him as the smoke started to dissipate, however as soon as it did, they found themselves still in trouble, but only enough trouble as the two Drell would give them, as they, and about a handful of guards, were left.

Growling loudly, Dranih raises the claw hammer in the air. "You'll pay for that!" Before his foot was a dead Hanar, their leader was gone in the confusion with a single round through the body. "Kill them!"

One more bullet into the head of a Vorcha, and they knew the sniper was still at large, but their attention was divided once Shepard and Neji both ran into them, Neji tackling a Krogan and firing into his head through both eyes before Telim kicked him off and to the side.

Throwing her Shock grenade, the Spectre's incapacitation of the other guards went smoothly enough for her to focus on not getting hit by the very large hammer that nearly took her face off. "To slow!"

"Too COWARDLY!" The Drell yelled and charged, forcing Shepard to throw her entire body into dropping to the ground and into the legs of the Drell, her armor managing to absorb the impact as he fell forward. Though he used the handle of the hammer to catch himself and then step back up to his feet.

Turning, he saw a Shotgun coming in to bypass his shields, only to step back enough that the blast blew the shields away, giving him long enough to grab the gun and take it from the human woman and throw it away.

With the same hand, Dranih tried grabbing at the human but was in for a surprise as she grabbed the hammer and stepped on it to lift herself and dodging the grab only to grab his head and use her free leg to kick him straight into the chin, causing him to start flailing backward, trying to catch himself from falling.

In a slightly worse scenario, Neji ran behind some cover as Telim was firing his SMG's to full force, trying to keep the distance. "You'll need to do better than that!"

Grabbing a pistol from his hip, the N3 soldier flipped a switch and took a breath. "You asked for it... You know, Human history with guns is fascinating, always trying to find stopping power in exchange for rapid-fire. Precision shooting with a large caliber weapon. The bigger the power from a gun, the better. Thing is, today's military across the galactic scale is about different types of ammunition or which weapon has the right Mass Effect rail. I've been experimenting... Try this on for size, prototype overcharge!"

Turning over cover, Neji started getting hit by rapid-fire, but without a second to waste, he fired a single shot, his clip ejecting like a bat out of hell as the single-shot went through the SMG, causing it to explode. But it also kept going until it slammed through the Drell's shields and into his chest, just missing any vital organs but causing him to recoil and scream in surprise and pain.

A clear shot, nothing to stop the bullet, Garrus on the outside shot the Drell in the skull to finish him. "One left."

Dodging out of the way of the huge hammer, Shepard was still trying to get through the mass of muscle on the huge Drell, who just stopped midway to look and see his partner dead. "NO! Telim!... YOU WILL ALL PAY!" In his rage, however, he was met with a flipping heel kick into his jaw, snapping up at such an angle that his head bent back and cracked, killing him instantly.

As he fell, the hammer left his hand and slammed to the ground with a huge thump of a noise. With everything quiet, Neji and Shepard, looking towards each other, started loading the trucks with every bit of Eezo they could find, checking them all as Garrus helped fill the third truck as well. "We don't have much time... Called for Aria called out for our ship, we'll be out without a fuss."

What they did not see was a lone Vorcha hiding and watching. "Boss dead..." it whispered with a thought coming to him; "Everyone dead, so is I boss now?" In a moment he smiled; "I Boss now." He soon growled watching the trio take the eezo; "You don't take from the boss!"

Jumping at them with his claws out, he aimed for the head of the group, Shepard, who noticed the sound and turned with her shotgun I hand. Just as she fired into the things chest to kill it, it fell with its final strike, cutting with his claws at her. Even with her excellent reflexes, even Emily Shepard was unable to get away in time before it struck her, but what surprised them was this Vorcha has the sharpest claws they ever had the displeasure of seeing, cleaving her arm in three pieces from just below the shoulder, just above the plate armor.

Garrus quickly fired a dozen rounds into the corpse to make sure it was dead, but their leader leaned against the truck in pain holding her bleeding arm. "Shepard!"

It took everything for Emily not to scream out in pain as she hissed. Both men were quick to her side as they heard noises near the door; "Oh for fuck's sake!" Garrus cursed.

However, the trio froze as they heard wild gunfire and screaming which was followed by an explosion. "It's one damn human female with only swords! KILL HER-" Whoever yelled went silent as the door of the room shattered from a flying Krogan who was missing his head.

Slowly a woman adorned in black skintight leather with sleek armor pieces on the chest, shoulders, forearms, and shins walked inside. An ankle waistcoat went down to her ankles as her face was covered by a hood with a face mask. "Late for the party?" She quipped in a chipper tone.

In each hand were two Asari blades dripping with blood. And though her face was concealed, Garrus swore the woman was smiling.

"And you are?" The Turian officer questioned.

"You're back-up, no time for introductions though." She turned on her heels towards the door; "More friends are coming. So get her, get everything you wanted, and get the hell out of here!"

Neji shook his head; "Are you insane? You're taking on an entire gang!"

"I like to consider myself a functioning lunatic, but no more words!" As she said that a group of talon men stormed in; "So get going!"

Grunting in pain, Shepard powered through to get up. "I got one good arm, I drive one truck. Get our transport here and get the other two trucks out. NOW!"

Though neither of the male companions wanted to risk it, Shepard grabbed the Medi-gel and closed off the wound for the time being and walked off. "Shepard..." Garrus watched as she went around the truck.

"No time, we gotta go!" Neji pushed Garrus off to the other side and went for his own truck. The three got in and drove their Eezo out.

As they left, they watched the wild battle behind them from time to time through their rear views. Glimpses were all they could get as the woman flipped over one Turian, kicking another in the face as a human tried to shoot her from the side.

Jumping up and spinning, her hand glowing with Biotics, she pulled the human to her and stabbed into him, falling and sticking him like a pig on a roast to the ground before taking her sword out and biotically throwing him into a Krogan.

That gave the strange mystery woman the time to get in and cut both the reptile's arms clean off and kicking him backward. Though the kick was into her sword that she let go of and stabbed through all the Krogan's hearts in a single strike. Twisting with a biotic pull force, she had the blade fly at a Vorcha jumping at her.

As he was cut in half, the strange fighter lifted her hands in the air to pull a giant Singularity, pulling everyone around her in along with many large containers and object before blasting a large Warp field into the Singularity and causing the entire place to blow and glow with dark energy fields.

As it was gone from the trio's view, they focused on their next step. And it did not take long for them to finish their drive. Their transport was in the dock, with some of the forces defending from the Talons from earlier. Thankfully they were clear and got the three trucks in and the transport started up. Though unseen, a shadow of a figure came into the closing cargo doors and hid in the way as the ship took off, their destination was back towards the Initiative.

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

Somehow Emily knew she could hear Naruto chiding her for doing such a rookie mistake. Dropping her guard for a millisecond in enemy territory. She was lucky all she lost was an arm. "I can just hear the grilling from Anderson coming," She quipped.

Currently, she laid on a medical bed of a room in a hospital on Luna. No way was Garrus having his partner looked at by some shifty doc in Omega. Thankfully the Medigel did the trick of sealing her wound stopping her bleeding. Enough that they left the Terminus and back to safer space. Aria had forward a message of thanks as well as a hefty sum of credits deposited into their accounts.

The moment they reached earth they went straight to the Luna colony and took Emily to their hospital.

"I think he'd be grateful you're still alive," Garrus spoke at his seat in her room. Ever the loyal friend he had not left her side since coming here days ago. Neji had departed to take the Eezo back to the Initiative to which Garson and Ryder both had come to visit her.

And who were still here as Jien leaned in from her chair; "From what Alec told me Captain Anderson sees you like his daughter."

"Either way, I feel like I should be disowned. The rotten mistake cost me an arm. It was my main arm too, so now I have to become a southpaw." Emily sighed as she lay down. "Looks like I'll be out for a decent bit until they fix my nerves, that's a month process till I can get a prosthetic."

"The Initiative is delving into some advancements in medical, we'll pass on some ideas to you." Jien smiled. "If that's alright. Least we can do for you helping correct this mess."

"Before that, we're still looking into who gave us the backup... Who was that woman? No one outside of the Initiative knew we were heading to Omega." Garrus looked at the two leaders of the group they helped. "Why was she?" As if on cue, the door opened to the hooded woman.

Save this time her hood was down as well as her mask. Showing the face of a beautiful woman with flawless tan skin with long raven-colored hair and the purest sapphire eyes. None in the room could determine how old she looked as she appeared utterly ageless. At best Emily guessed she could be in her early thirties "Well you're still breathing, that's good." Her ruby lips turned upwards. Her voice was both soft with a sultry tone.

Alec sighed; "Getting a call to her can be difficult at times." He gestured to the woman; "This is Lydia Raven."

Emily cocked a brow; "Raven?"

"Made it myself since I had no last name. Orphan life an all that," Lydia shrugged; "Nice to finally meet you, Emily Shepard."

How she moved, her posture, even how spoke felt predatory. Never mind the fact Garrus did not even hear her footsteps as she came in. "Alliance?"

"Nope..." The woman shook her head; "I walked a very darker path in life."

Alec leaned against the wall; "She was an assassin. Can't tell you how many times we crossed paths."

"Enough to make the impression."

Eyes on her at all times, Garrus crossed his arms as his mandibles twitched. "I guess we owe you thanks. You look human but move like nothing I have ever seen, Asari swords to boot. You are one dangerous woman."

Lydia gave a respectful nod; "Thank you officer Vakarian. Well-earned skills I put years of my life through hell to attain." Her face grew solemn; "And used for the wrong reasons."

Emily cocked her head; "Garrus tried to find any pictures of your description."

"You won't find any," Alec stated; "Lydia wasn't the type of assassin who sought status. She was a ghost who killed her target and vanished before you knew she was there. How I ran into was pure luck."

"No, it was luck that you didn't have a price on your head," Lydia droned before shaking her head. "I reached out to Alec explaining I wanted to change. Took some convincing."

Jien gave a wary look; "Still trying to convince myself."

"Hey, Sara likes me."

Alec deadpans; "Because I haven't told her you're full past to her yet."

"Considering I'm on the Pathfinder team you will have to get to that."

"Digressing... Thank you." Wincing as she got up out of bed, Shepard put her only arm out. "Pretty sure without you, we'd be limping back with more than a single arm lost."

Lydia extended her hand and shook Emily's; "You are a good person. This galaxy needs people like you and Garrus. And if Alec is offering anything for a new arm take it. Man is a clever as hell." They let go; "Well I better get back to the Hyperion." She gave a small bow to Emily and Garrus; "Good luck you two."

Turning Lydia gave a nod to Alec who returned it as she left the room; "We're damn lucky she had a change of heart."

"Question;" Garrus leaned from his chair; "Why does she use only swords?"

"She has Biotics as well. Best I have ever seen. I have wondered if she is like your brother Naruto. But she won't say," Alec grumped. "And she stated very loudly she utterly detests firearms. 'No real fun fighting someone when can't get up close.'"

Emily gave a curious look; "You sure she is on our side?"

Alec nodded; "I've seen eyes like hers before. Those are the eyes of someone who does want to do right for all the wrongs she did. But she'll do it her way. And I won't push her, convincing her to join the Pathfinder team was hard enough."

A beeping was heard right after that, causing Alec to get the monitor up. It was Jondum. "Hello. Sorry too abruptly get a call in, but I have some news... Shepard, whatever you did on Omega has gotten attention. There is a bounty on your head, the Terminus systems are going to be wanting you dead for that reward. I suggest you lay low outside of them, at least until the one who put the bounty up is gone."

"Shit... Thanks, Jondum. Sorry to have had you worry." Groaning as the call ended, she sat back down. "And Aria paid us for our work, so she didn't do it..."

Jien gave a concerned look to Shepard; "Do you need anything?"

"Focus on the initiative, just another hurdle I have to deal with," Emily grunted.

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

Garrus hated feeling restless, and even doing training at Spectre HQ was not helping as his mind lingered back to last week. Somehow Aria knew something like this would play out. The bounty on Emily's head being the most concerning part.

The nerve endings in Shepard's' arm were a mess thanks to the quick healing effects of the Medi-gel, so it was turning into a very painful process, but the dark-haired human woman grit through every bit of it, showing the Turian the meaning of resilience.

As he sat down outside the room, he was greeted by Jondum, who surprisingly came in person. "I see you've taken to back and forth sessions. Between your training and keeping an eye on your commanding officer. Sorry, I suppose that's a bit careless of me. She is your friend and ally, which is why you're so fixated on this incident. Some are suggesting you do not care for the training anymore."

Standing up, Garrus was unsure what to say officially, all he knew was his anxiety and stress were taking over. "If I hadn't been careless in our hurry, hell if any of us could have been on watch, we'd not have lost anything, even one finger or talon. I was lookout through the entire plan. Of course I feel fixated on her well-being! Look, Bau, I appreciate your concern, but I am just fine with my current plan of action... Even if Spectre training is seemingly useless to me right now."

"You have reports and files staggeringly high about how much action you prefer to preparation. Even your father has had things to say about your desire to skirt the law and cut the tape to drag the criminals off the streets. Spectre's may seem unapproachable, but even we have standards. You would fit right in given the training and time." Jondum put a hand on the shoulder pad of the man in front of him. "Walk with me."

Garrus was confused as he did, the two taking a moment of silence. "So what are you saying?"

"I am saying... Don't join us as a Spectre." Given the stop and gaping look, Bau smirked. "One thing the Spectre's do is they run solo. Usually, only use help as a distraction. Some have, and some still do, have a team. But their work is more efficient when they are truly connected as allies and friends. The reason Shepard is being talked about in such high regard is that she, and Naruto, had a team of friends that could handle any situation. Even during events that were suicidal, you all made it back alive every time. I suggest you do not become a Spectre... But learn to be an even greater force alongside Shepard. To do that, I have a mission for you."

Garrus was wondering where Bau was going with this; "A mission?"

"Deep cover, I can give the details. But your job shall be in Omega."

"You do realize it's been a week since we went, the bounty is still active."

"For Shepard, not for a one Garrus Vakarian. The bounty is your mission. You need to get to Omega and use any means necessary to find out whose targeting Shepard and take them out. You have free reign." Almost chuckling, the Salarian gave some credits to him. "You'll be able to do what you've desired for years. Omega's a playground of crime, and you want to make a difference by taking crime down. What better place to do that, than Omega? As long as you don't screw around in any way to make a negative impact on Aria, you'll be free from any real wrath on the station."

Garrus was silent as he thought for a moment.

Bau could see he got his attention; "While yes, trying to clean that place up would be nigh impossible. There are some people there who want something better. You could give them that."

"I'm not really the hero type."

"You give yourself far too little credit Vakarian." With that said, the Salarian Spectre walked off, leaving the Turian to his thoughts. Thoughts that were rattling in his skull about what his next move should be.

Looking at the door to Shepard's room, Garrus grit his jaw, Mandibles twitched and his fists clenched. "_My next move, this choice… I have to make the right one. For everyone. For Shepard._"

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX ~ xx ~ XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**


	4. Shepard Chronicles: Maelstrom Rising

**Arch: **The board is set. And the pieces are in place. Let the games begin…

**Godo: **With this, the Shepard Chronicles is done… for now. I know some of you have been really patient and some even groaning about the time taken away from the games but I hope you enjoyed this short look through the extended universe alongside Shepard.

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX ~ xx ~ XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

Stepping away from his desk, fixing his hat, Admiral Hackett walked out of his secret office in the deep cover small station he created to keep from any prying eyes. Going to the lounge, he found the best pilot in the Alliance, one Jeff Moreau. "Enjoying some of our imported alcohol? Heard you had stronger stuff through your own medicine."

"Doesn't mean I don't like the burn of scotch from time to time." Setting the glass he had down, Joker sighed. "You know, it's hard to work up any enthusiasm for this meet and greet. Sir. Not to be insubordinate-" Hackett could almost smirk from that. "-But after everything that's happened, I can't even fathom why you need me here of all people and in all places. Can't you call up one of your ghosts?"

The admiral poured himself a glass of bourbon before sitting opposite the pilot; "You'd be right, any one of them could do what I needed. But what I need is you."

"A guy who's bones break just by using the head?"

Hackett shook his head "Nope, I need Flight Lieutenant Jeffery 'Joker' Moreau." The younger man grumbled as he was no fan being called 'Jeffery'. "Out of everyone in the Alliance you're the best pilot we have."

"Yeah I'm a pilot, but me doing spy work was not exactly in the manual of operating ships...Sir;" Joker grunted sipping his scotch; "I'm not exactly subtle, Captain, I mean councilor Anderson can vouch for that. I'd be lucky to get shot in the face."

"I've read the former Captain's reports."

"See," Jeff pointed at the older man.

The Admiral gave a coy look; "Councilor Anderson actually applauded your masterful skills as a pilot. Outside of you is not so disciplined mouth of yours. Even Naruto praised you, I recall him saying, and I quote; 'Craziest son of bitch I ever met'."

At that, Jeff smirked before looking at his glass; "Sounds like him." His voice grew solemn. Things had grown less enjoyable without his longtime friend around anymore. The two argued like cats and dogs but Naruto never pitied him. That went a long way for the crippled man. "Haven't flown anything for a while now."

"I know... But what I am asking might rekindle that."

The said pilot gave an annoyed glance; "All you said was spy mission, no real specifics. Or who you want me to spy against."

"Cerberus."

Jeff nearly dropped his glass as his eyes grew several sizes; "Excuse my language Admiral, but are you out of your fucking mind!?"

Putting his drink down and turning to the extraordinary pilot the Admiral looked serious. "Language excused, Joker. But only because you need to understand some things." Producing a piece of paper, he spoke up with details. "A few months ago, the Council publically called out on the Reaper threat. As much as I don't sway one way or another on the subject, I do not believe Naruto to be a liar. So their slight slander of his words caused some distress to those who know him for being there for his friends and allies. Shepard even gave the Council hell, though she knows not to fight them outright. Some of the Normandy's former crew, alien or otherwise, even spoke up against the accusations he was trying to cause panic."

"And what does that have to do with an antique information system, and me spying on one of the shadiest groups in the known system?" Jeff picked the paper up but didn't start reading it until he got what the point was, and he was hoping soon.

"The papers are to prevent any attempts to hack the information. Low tech, but effective against today's hacking tools. One reason why this station is hardwired and off networks period. But digressing... Several of our personnel have gone missing as of late, but the pattern was always there. Remember Chakwas? She contacted me a week ago, telling me she received a new assignment. No official assignment was given, so she told me, in a very vague way, that the whole thing was shady like an organization I know. I sent one of mine to talk privately before she left for it, and she told them directly. Cerberus was pulling her in. And she told us something very interesting about her assignment." Hackett pointed to the paper.

Peering at his superior then back to the paper Jeff read on. "Lazarus project?" He muttered to himself before he froze. The glass in his hand dropped and shattered on the floor as he stared at the paper. "...T-t-they are... Doing... What..." His voice was broken, filled with flooded emotions as he stuttered.

Hackett remained fixed on Moreau though frowned at the dropped glass for a moment. "Exactly like it says, Joker."

Almost robotically the pilot gazed upwards at the older man; "That's impossible."

"Not anymore it appears; Cerberus has poured in billions of credits to do this. Going to extraordinary lengths... To resurrect Naruto."

"That's insane! No, there's no way. He burned up, he's ash! In my report, I told everyone he went through the atmosphere of that rock unprotected. Even if his body remained intact enough to not be dust then the impact would make him flatter than any pancakes I've seen." Joker kept looking at the report though.

Hackett took a deep breathe. "Cerberus, and The Illusive Man, has been throwing wrenches into every investigation. They look to be going once direction but go into another, one of the reasons why my Corsairs have been... Unsuccessful since their conception of bringing the whole thing down for good. But considering the lengths they have gone through to keep Kushina's body from us, dead or alive, I feel this time we're looking at a very rare opportunity to find out. At first, I thought it was a farce, but considering the personnel that seems to be joining, those who would drop anything to meet Naruto who they believe is deserving of the best treatment, Chakwas even who thinks to believe it, and her new protégé Sakura begging to be onboard. I think if they do, they may try to turn him against us somehow. I doubt it would work, but I need someone to get so close to the project with Naruto that they can find out for sure. You're the only one who would fit the bill, they would need someone to fly him around for their own means so who better than the best pilot? And if it is Naruto, he'd talk with those he knows best. Shepard's against Cerberus right now so they would never let her close before he wakes up, making you the better choice for this operation."

Joker's heart refused to settle down as he dropped the paper and leaned against his chair. "If they are bringing back Naruto. If this not some bullshit... Are they-?"

"Resurrecting Kushina as well? It is possible. Then I can't express enough the importance of this. Naruto will need you, Chakwas, and Sakura. And if by some miracle we also get Kushina back, she will need every alley she can in that hornet nest."

Joker adjusted his hat; his breathing becoming more controlled clenching his hands into a fist. He sharply gazed at the Admiral; "When do I leave?"

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

Cyrene, one of the many human colonies at the border on the Terminus Systems. One of the many colonies that came from the expansion of humanity since joining the council races. However, being on the edge of the Terminus things was looser with laws adherent to the Alliance. Yet despite that, Cyrene and other Terminus Human colonies got a defense boost like the rest after Eden Prime, Feros, and Terra Nova were attacked. The Alliance brass no longer could avoid the issue and thus every human colony was given proper fortifications, soldiers, and defenses.

An alliance shuttle appeared near the relay as it neared Cyrene. Inside Emily sat quietly with several other Alliance soldiers while she gazed at the pilot; "How is it looking, Lieutenant Cortez?"

At the pilot seat sat a man of Hispanic descent, dresses in standard alliance fatigues with a buzz cut and well-trimmed goatee. "Hitting Atmo in two minutes Commander. How's that new arm?"

Thanks to some new friends with the Andromeda Initiative, after her arm was gone, she was given the best care and implants and even a prosthetic cybernetic arm. Lifting it, it was a matte jet black color with red N7 lines down it, the Human Spectre smiled as the fingers sprang forth several tools on command, wrenches, and the like. "Engineer's dream. Have to admit, I was skeptical at first with the new research not even halfway through testing yet, but Ryder took the plunge first and came out fine. So, any word since the last transmission from this place?"

"Opening the last message, from two weeks ago. Not a single thing since." The pilot flipped the recording up.

"As much as I don't like having more troops here, the pirates are gone now so I guess the Alliance isn't leaving us high and dry right now. Still, for whatever Admiral is trying to show authority, we'd appreciate it if you split. We're starting to see strings attached to this arrangement. Give us some firepower and some bases and we'll handle things from here, capiche?"

"Since then, the small troop detail has even gone silent, Ma'am. We're hoping they only got cut off with a random attack and are still alright and rebuilding their communications network." Cortez took the screen away.

But something didn't feel right with the dark-haired Spectre. "Two weeks of nothing? Sounds worse... We will hope for the best-case scenario for now. Nothing we try to raise them with is working, so all we got now is landing and seeing the damage. Keep up in the sky to overview the area first, any non-hostile activity we land."

"Roger that. Hitting Atmo in thirty."

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

The shuttle jostled as it landed on the ground near Cyrene. While large the colony had a modest look about it with small and large buildings clustered together. Cortez looked back to the Commander; "Smooth landing ma'am, but still no radio chatter."

Emily nodded as she checked over he shotgun; "Understood, keep the shuttle ready for anything."

"Yes, Commander."

The human Spectre turned to her current unit; "I want every inch of this place searched. But keep your heads on a swivel for any possible hostiles. We need to find out what exactly happened here, and maybe get lucky and find a survivor."

"Yes ma'am!" The unit chorused as the shuttle doors opened.

As the shuttle touched down completely the five-man squad plus Shepard came out and started searching, two by two in each direction with the Spectre walking with a new soldier. "So, what do you make of this place, Private?" They were entering the suburban area and they saw absolutely no one.

Seeing a barbeque with burnt ashen meat a week old on the grill still, the young woman was getting a little tense. "A nightmare, ma'am. Who leaves meals out in the open for days on end and never come back? Mercs hit the place maybe?"

"No... This is something else..." They entered a house that was opened up and saw everything right as rain... except for the obvious lack of anyone there and the whir of the central climate control. "No struggle, no destruction, not a single thing out of place even plates from meals half-eaten. It's more like they vanished completely. Nightmare? Maybe this is Elm Street then because this is horror in a nutshell when thin air is where people went."

The private gave an odd look; "That one of those old 20th-century movies?"

"Watched and listened to whatever you could find in the slums. Everyone in my old gang became die-hard Linkin Park fans." Emily admitted while remaining on task. The commander tapped her comm; "Anything in your area Sargent Willis?"

"Nothing Commander, empty homes. The place is a damn ghost town."

Emily lightly cursed as they left the house; "We keep looking."

"Yes ma'am." The Sargent spoke up before the comm went silent.

"Be nice to find someone," The private quipped.

After a few more houses, the call came from the next team. "Corporal Garn here, we've got to the makeshift shelter and troop camp. Halfway finished, no one is here either. But we found something strange, rendezvous?"

"Be there shortly, all teams converge." Shepard picked up the pace to round the block. Getting there to see everyone else gathered; the Corporal saluted. "What you got Garn? Give me something..."

"Yes, Ma'am. Though the definition of 'something' is left to be desired." He hooked his Omni-tool into the nearby computer and streamed some data. "They were starting up standard recording protocol, but we only have two days of data. Seems they got something but..."

"Play it." The video played to show some of the off duty men playing a game before something caught their attention. As they grabbed their rifles and walked out to see what some commotion was gathering, the screen started to corrupt a bit before some sudden loud voices and calls for help were given, the nearby soldiers firing at something. It took less than a minute from when the firing started to it ending, and another five before all noise was gone, all but the buzzing of some kind and the video's corruption finally ending the recording. "... You're right, leaves lots to be desired in the way of giving us any clues, all we know is that they were attacked by something and then nothing."

"What freaks me out, even more, is that we don't see any indication of a battle. No buildings have had bullet holes, not a single dropped body. It's like they fired at nothing or were shooting blanks." Willis sighed. "I don't get it, not one bit."

Shepard hacked into the computer as well to try and figure out what corrupted the data. It looked tampered with, jammed even. It was almost like the attack hit every single device that could give any indication the colony was being attacked. "Alright..." Groaning, the Spectre put her rifle away. "Well... We're not finding anything here right now; a general sweep isn't going to turn up any clues. We call in a team to turn over every rock for anything that could point to what happened here... I have the worst feeling about this, but we've done all we could. Back to the shuttle everyone."

As the group made their way back Willis stopped; "Ma'am." Emily turned to peer back at the Sargent. "Swore I saw movement a second ago."

"Could be your eyes playing tricks Serge," A private remarked. It was then everyone heard a loud clanging of metal that drew everyone's weapon and turned to their left.

Shepard held her shotgun as she surveyed what she could see. "No one fire unless fired upon, we do not want to shoot a colonist." The members of the units nodded and begun moving.

Their steps were slow and measured; pointing a finger Emily had half the group split in hopes to surround who or whatever they heard. Rounding a warehouse a few gasped in shock as a child ran from out of the shadows passed them at the top speed her little legs could manage. "Lower your guns!" Emily commanded before she and the others began to give chase.

Though a fast one, the child was not as skilled or as fast as Shepard, who rounded the corners and cut the little girl off, arms open to catch the sole remaining colonist. The child began to fight and struggle, but Shepard had put her helmet on and just took it. "As annoying as the pounding of my helmet is, you're more likely to hurt yourself than me, so calm down! We're not here to hurt you!"

"Good going, Captain Shepard. Hey, kid, it's alright, we're the good guys!" Garn came up to help, but his helmet was off, and the girl smacked him good in the nose. "GAH!"

The child however did not respond as she only snarled growled.

"You're safe now," Emily stressed while Garn held his nose with some blood dripping out.

Yet the little girl kept flaying wildly, almost in a feral state. That however begun to slow as exhaustion seem to set in. The girl breathed heavily as she was limp in Shepard's grip.

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

The shuttle door closed as Emily took a cloth to clean the little girl's face. She had to be no older than ten or nine with dirty brunette hair. Her clothes were just as dirty as she looked somewhat malnourished. Cortez walked over with a glass of water as a private typed on her Omni-tool. "Kid's name is Sara, who was born here in Cyrene." She glanced at Garn who was fixing his nose; "And has one hell of a left hook."

"Ha-ha," The man groaned.

Taking the glass Emily looked back at Sara who looked at everyone fearfully and then to the ground. "Sara," the child looked to her as she spoke in a calm gentle voice; "My name is Emily. We mean you no harm"

"...Papa said soldiers were bad people."

Cortez knelt beside the Captain; "Well, we're not. I promise."

"Do you know what happened here," Emily asked gently.

She kept silent for a few moments. Sara soon looked down at her hands and feet. "...I don't know."

"Anything can help us understand what happened here." Shepard finished cleaning the girl up. "All we know is something happened here that made everyone here, except you, just disappear. Even if it's the smallest detail, you'd be a major help."

"Honest... I don't know what happened. My parents got into a fight and I ran off, I thought if I ran far enough away that they would be so worried they wouldn't fight anymore and come find me." Looking to the side and pointing, Sara continued. "I went that way towards the lakes. There's this cool underwater cave I found, I hid inside there for a whole day. When I started getting hungry, and... And no one came for me... I..."

Understanding fully, the Spectre nodded. "You came back and no one was here... It's ok; we'll find out what happened and see about getting your parents back to you." She smiled but sighed when she stood and went to make the girl something to eat and drink, though she suspected the kid lived off refrigerated quick snacks till they got there.

"So, what do we do now? If she doesn't even know, and we have no clues, what can we even do here?" The Private had a point. "And even if we do manage to find out, how long? We can't just leave her here."

"As much as I hate to do it, Lin, she comes with us and into protective custody until we find living relatives she can stay with. We'll see about finding her parents but... who knows the culprits responsible and their tactics on prisoners. We just have to have hope."

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

Once the shuttle went to the nearest Alliance station and given Sara to proper protective custody, Emily's unit went to another human colony which was further in the Terminus System.

Fehl Prime… Despite being out from Council space, this colony was heavily protected by the Alliance given its rich pharmaceuticals productions. Currently, the said protection has doubled since the Geth attack.

And while everything was in the green, it never hurt to check on things. But also came a transmission from a Lieutenant James Vega and Asari Anthropologist Treeya Nuwani on discovering Prothean ruins.

Landing, the team walked out to meet the defense team, one James Vega and their commanding officer Captain Toni. Stepping forward, Shepard gave her salute. "Captain, a pleasure to meet you. And these must be your honored squad." Having looked at the personnel files, she knew the rough-faced marine with the muscles to spare was their first contact for the ruins. "You must be James Vega. How I hear it, you led the scrambled defense to victory against the Blood Pack opposition. The battle report mentioned being a lost cause until you took out the leadership."

Nervously, the Hispanic Lieutenant gulped and took the offered hand after saluting. "Uh, thank you Ma'am, but honestly it wasn't just me. The team was prepared to give their all for the colony; I just took the frontal barrage to give them the time to do their specialties."

One marine behind him snickered a bit, which gave him an elbow from the one beside them. Toni turned to them with command. "Quiet! Show some respect to the Spectre." He turned back. "Pleasure's all ours, Anderson stresses enough and beyond how you've proven yourself time and again. I'm still wondering why they only promoted you to captain. You should be a full-blown Rear Admiral with your qualifications.

"Whilst I was called Commander, I was still only a Lieutenant Commander two years ago, ranking me up further than one rank a year is against the rules. You know this sir."

At that Toni grunted with a smirk; "You like to go the hard way."

"Yes sir."

"So why you're here would be because of the ruins Vega and Treeya found?" Toni questioned as they began leaving the landing area. "Our Asari friend has been at it for a day trying to crack the main complex of that thing. No idea what's inside?"

Vega spoke up; "But gotta be important right?" Toni dryly glanced at him; "Sorry sir."

"Anything Prothean is important," Emily remarked.

Heading through the compound to the colony, Willis hummed aloud. "I have to ask, what makes these ruins important? Prothean or not, our mission is Terminus Support. Forgive my lip here, ma'am, but even as our commanding officer you're not strictly part of this team's mission. You're part of your own mission here right?"

"Got it in one, and that's strike one for the lip but I'll disregard it for now. All we need to know is that this Treeya Nuwani is apprenticing under Liara T'soni. The latter being a very good friend and ally of mine, so if she thinks Treeya is up to the task on Protheans, then I want to know what's got her student's full attention." Pulling up her recent messages, Shepard hummed. "So, where's Treeya now?" She switched off her messages, for the time being, seeing it was from an anonymous source.

James spoke up quickly; "At the site ma'am."

"Good, then we can go check this place out now." Emily and Toni walked in the front as their units followed.

Lin glanced over to Garn; "That James guy a little jittery?" she whispered earning a shrug from the man.

One of the squad under Veg and Toni leaned in, overhearing them and whispering back to the woman. "Major fan of Shepard right there, as soon as we heard she was comin', knew he'd be all over trying to make an impression."

Ribbing him slightly was the woman in the same squad. "Shut it, Milique, you aren't helping." She smiled at the new squad in. "Sorry about him. He's a gossipmonger. Kamille, nice to meet you guys."

The members of both squads got along as they went through town. Though they didn't get far before a little blond girl trying to tackle Vega from jumping from behind a box. He caught her quick and smiled. "Well, there's the little one, been a full day since last I saw you, huh?"

The girl pouted; "Didn't surprise you did I?"

"Nope, you've got a lot to learn about stealth muchacha," James smiled before looking over to Shepard; "April this is Commander Shepard."

That seemed to spark the girl's attention; "The commander Shepard!?"

Amused Emily nodded; "The very one kiddo."

"James talks so much about you!"

"And yet never met me." Knowing full well the fan base she had, Shepard could only keep her eyes from rolling until she could judge the type of fan James seemed to be.

James nervously smiled but returned to the little girl's attention. "Shepard is here for an inspection of the ruins we uncovered out here, we're on our way to meet with Treeya and get ready. Sorry to disappoint but you need to keep in town for this one."

"But it's not even dangerous! Come on, after you beat back those creeps over a year ago there's been nothing but quiet and boredom! Just this once can't I go with you on a mission?" The pout was incredibly cute, in an attempt to sway them to let her join.

"Sorry April, but where we're going the site's a tad more dangerous than advertised." He set her down. "But when we got some spare time, I'll take you to the safer parts to explore. Suena justa?"

April pouted but nodded; "Suena justo. Dime lo que encuentres ahí, promete?"

She smiled as James patted her head; "You got it!" At that April waved as she ran off. He sighed; "Taught her Spanish, didn't think she'd learn it so fast."

"Kids can surprise you," Emily quipped; "And whatever we find, tell her it is something else." The lieutenant blinked wide; "I learned a lot of languages back home. Had to in the slums."

"Right, you and the foxes were a group of orphans. You know, I heard some say you were just slave labor for one of the bigger gangs out there in those ruins."

"Not the case, we were just trying to survive, stealing from those gangs was better than stealing from any other down on their luck group there. Shall we move on though instead of standing still?" Gesturing forward, not knowing the layout of the colony or where anyone was, after all, the one-armed Spectre smiled.

"Of course, disculpas. This way." Leading on again, he composed himself. "Treeya's waiting on the outskirts with a couple of utility vehicles, off-road four-seaters. We'll be there shortly."

Turning to the older Captain, Garn hummed. "So, what's this Treeya like?"

"If I had to describe her, she's like most Asari I've met. Focused on their goals, don't take kindly to military types on their dig sites, and a logical mentality. Then again, I only really have five other examples of Asari I've met so I could just be working with a certain group of them that rotate out of dig sites." Toni scoffed though with a smile. "Treeya's the hardest on us out of them all though, and that's saying something. The woman doesn't take any shit from us without a lot of lip."

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

Leaning against one of the off-road vehicles was an Asari in a uniform fit for a scientist. Her foot tapped as her blue eyes took notice of figures coming towards her; "There you are."

A weak chuckle came from Vega; "Sorry to keep you waiting." Emily saw the knowing smirks from James's squad but ignored it as she gave a formal Asari bow; "About how versed I am compared to my brother."

Treeya gave the bow back; "Being respectful always goes a long way. I think that is a human phrase... Treeya Nuwani."

"Captain Emily Shepard."

"Liara speaks highly of you, and your late brother. Though that's hardly a fitting subject for the time being. The ruins are a half an hour drive from here, though I wonder why the Alliance is so closely interested in these ruins. It's not a primary focus these days."

Shaking her head, Shepard stepped up to one of the vehicles. "Alliance isn't, not really. In fact, I am interested in the ruins more than the brasses are. Just so happens we got a tip these ruins might prove beneficial in terms of information, and it became official. Kind of why my team's an investigative force, not a hardened strike team."

"Gee, thanks, Captain." Willis laughed as he got in the truck with Shepard and Kamille.

Treeya got into her vehicle with Garn and Vega, though she wasn't the happiest about it. Turning to the doctor, the Spectre smiled. "Besides, Liara taking on a protégé? I wanted to see for myself."

"Liara takes her work at archeology extremely seriously. She had mentioned a few times how she was like her mother in that regard," Treeya remarked. "While other scholars and the council scoff at her work, I have learned a great deal. And I believe her theories. Prothean ruins that seem too clean, even for ruins. Like someone was ensuring there was no trace of how they were wiped out. Even more so for the races older than the Protheans."

Emily glanced at the Asari; "Liara fill you in on what she saw with us?"

"She did, even showed me the images she saw from your brother's mind from the beacons. While nightmarish there was valuable knowledge we could not ignore."

Shepard nodded as the vehicles drove off for the ruins. "Have you been able to enter these new ruins?" as on her comm.

"Not yet," Vega spoke through his comm. "Whatever those rudos put in there is locked up and tight."

"I have reason to believe a nearby artifact contains the key to unlocking the doors further in. However, it's taking me more time than I'd like to fully understand it." The Asari doctor spoke up as she explained. "I do not know what you can do to help, but I am open to anything you can do to provide that help."

Turning to Willis, Private Lin shrugged. "Best engineer and tech specialist in the Alliance unable to hack into something? That'll be the day."

"Respect, Private. Show it."

Wincing from that, Lin groaned. "Sorry, Ma'am."

Milique was snickering a bit to himself a moment. "So, Shepard, forgive the lower rank banter but I gotta ask. Word is with your brother he was able to use Prothean tech. You sure you can get into some yourself? Not doubting you, just want to know we're not driving through this heat for nothing."

"Naruto explained to me the basics in case I found anything on my own. The cipher he gained on Feros gave him an extensive understanding."

Treeya nodded; "Liara also showed me through melding. She has been trying to process what she could like your brother. But he experienced deeper than she did."

They had no idea, some days her brother spoke in a very strange language like it was second nature. They figured out it was Prothean of all things. He had gotten more than a few odd glances on Normandy because of that.

Finally arriving, the group got out of the vehicles and started into the first room to be uncovered and looked around at the strange architecture. "Well, this is new to me, then again Protheans have a signature, and this matches."

"What's that mean?" Willis said in confusion as he stared at some statue. "It's all Greek to me, either way that you cut it."

Unbelievably, Vega had insightful input. "Know how Earth has several hundred different types of buildings and shapes of walls and art throughout its history? Protheans would have different styles through theirs and on different planets. It's a cultural thing."

Hitting the locked door, Treeya turned to Shepard. "This is the locked door; we can't seem to get in without an electronic key of some sort. And I believe the key is over here." Leading them into a deeper recess, the Asari pointed out the object on the wall. It looked like a giant plaque of some kind but was giving off access of data like any computer.

Humming aloud, Shepard lightly brushed the first off some of it and inspected it. "Not familiar with this thing, but the room looks like an office of some kind... Maybe this was a major access point for everyone who worked here."

"That was also my guess." Treeya tried getting into the computer but was having trouble still. "The firewall was active the moment I hooked up to it, and it's been increasingly frustrating. It's like it changes as I am trying to break through and closing off any back door I can find."

Trying to get in as well, the Spectre used an Omni-tool on her real arm to gain access and start fiddling with the code for a moment. "There's always a way in, moving or not. The usual trick to a random access firewall is to find the pattern. Figure you know that and it's still not working so onto an advanced trick."

Sadly, even that did not work, as the way she hacks in was being foiled, as if something was actively fighting her from entering. That got her attention. "This isn't a firewall... It's an advanced VI program."

"Wait, VI?" That got everyone's attention. Willis crossed his arms and had first say. "Then access the terminal and talk to it."

"Not that kind of VI. This one's just a code to keep anyone out under lockdown." Shepard smirked and activated her real arm's Omni-tool to single-hand mode. She did this to activate the Omni-tool on her cybernetic arm and using both to hack in at once she managed to override the VI firewall and breakthrough. Seeing as the VI was actually pretty advanced in defense measures, she made a copy before deleting it and opening the display overview on the plaque. "Open says I. Now we can get the key. Treeya?"

A grateful sigh escaped the Asari; "Thank you, Captain." She came over and touched the plaque. In seconds two small doors opened as a perfect sphere of strange metal came out. It floated just above the woman's hand as they walked back to the large doors. Standing at the center Treeya extended her hand as the sphere floated into the door.

For a second everyone saw a flash and what looked like a vein within the doors themselves. Soon the enormous doors begun to part as dust picked up around the group. A few coughed before noticing lights lit up a long hallway. Without a word, the Asari strolled in with the others following. After two minutes they came to a flight of stairs that went downwards.

"The Protheans have to make this place annoying," Lin asked no one.

Vega looked back to her; "Had to have their reasons."

After five minutes they reached the end which came to an even larger set of doors which thankfully opened. This time they had to use their Omni-tools to light the area which made many of them look in awe. "I-Is this what I think it is," Garn questioned.

Emily made her way beside Treeya who looked more annoyed than happy; "It's a giant weapon's cache."

Indeed, there were all manners of Prothean based weapons neatly placed around the walls and tables in the room. A few gasped as they shined some light on what had to be Prothean Armor! Several in fact. "The R&D department will be orgasming seeing all this stuff," James spoke up with a smile.

Noticing how Treeya was not too pleased with the armory, the dark-haired Spectre looked around before finding a door to another place. Opening it up they noticed a small but very important looking artifact. It was almost like the ball of metal she saw, the one her brother said showed what looked to be an Asari talking about humans. "Treeya. Maybe you can figure out this thing. It might be a data module. Maybe something much less... weaponized."

The young Asari hurried over as Garn gave the order to pack enough to head back with. Gently picking the orb up, Treeya tried to access it with her Omni. "This is a data module, but it's not like any I've ever seen. I'm not picking up an electronic signature; it's almost a construct rather than a device. Interesting..."

Knowing from Naruto the one from before had a key or something; Shepard looked at it before finding a small hole. "Missing a piece... Find that thing, you might gain access."

As the group loaded things up, Vega turned to Shepard. "You know, I hate to let this stuff go but we're just a pharmaceutical colony here. Though I'd rather be asking to join you for a mission I have my orders from Anderson, the Counselor wants the Terminus colonies to get some extra guard up."

"I heard, he told me he's been trying to send extra personnel around that show the fortitude to take on bigger odds. Believe it or not, he got word that something was happening out here for a few months. First colonist expeditions went missing, then outposts just up and vanished without so much as settling down on site. All I can say is this, Lieutenant; you'll need to keep sharp. After my report, I'll be asking for beefing up of our outer colonies big time."

Kamille heard this. "What's this about?"

"I can't say anything yet, it's still a classified investigation. But just know I mean it. Whatever is hitting the outer colony efforts, whoever it is taking out ships and supplies, they just took out an entire established colony. And it's nothing we have ever seen before. Expect some kind of increased defense measures."

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

Cortez only looked wide-eyed seeing a crate of unique weapons and armor were loaded up in the shuttle. Upon looking inside it, he sharply turned to the Captain; "Are these?!"

Emily nodded; "We take these to Admiral Hackett directly."

"Understood ma'am." The pilot saluted before heading to the cockpit.

As her group got back on board Emily stopped as she noticed a tiny figure trying to sneak in. And poorly doing it since her blond hair was noticed; "I think your mother would worry trying to sneak away."

April gulped as Shepard's crew turns to see the little blond near the open shuttle door.

Coming over, the Spectre put a hand on her blond hair. "What's the big idea young lady? Why even try to sneak away?"

"Yeah, I mean it's not like we're doing anything a kid might find interesting." Willis shrugged as he leaned back in his seat. "Just back and forth to colonies, looking at everything there and reporting in. Hell, after we take these back we're hitting... what, three more colonies before we get reassigned?"

Lin crossed her arms. "If that, not sure about the reassignment but it's just how it goes."

"Back to this stowaway please?" Sighing, Shepard looked to April who was twiddling her thumbs. "You gonna tell me why you're here? There's a good reason right?"

"I-I want to join the Alliance," The little one declared loudly.

Lin gave a coy look; "Think you're a bit too young right now kiddo."

"I can make it, I want to be like Vega and you Captain! I want to save people from bad guys!"

Emily knelt in front of the girl; "That's noble kiddo, but I gather the Lieutenant told you, you had to be eighteen to join."

"Not even if I ask really nicely?" The girl gave the most adorable puppy-dog eyes at the group. "I know not everyone likes the Alliance; hear that from some people in the colony. But you got to be the good guys; bad guys would never have saved us."

Such an innocent. Emily wanted to hug her but fought off the urge. Instead handed the girl one of her spare Omni-Tools. "This has a direct line to call me. If you truly want to be in Alliance you need to learn patience. In eight more years, if you're steadfast in your choice, call me on that. Meantime you can figure it out."

April seemed to be quite sharp as she put on her hand and it glowed to life instantly. Her sapphire eyes were wide with wonder before gazing up to Emily. "You promise?"

The Captain winked; "I'll take you there myself. How about that."

"Don't be stealing my spotlight, Captain." Vega ran up after finding out and looked nervously. "Her Madre is gonna kill me if she finds out about this..."

"Vega, look!" April waved the Omni-tool a bit. "I can call Shepard anytime!" Smirking, the blond girl turned it off and put it away. "You can't borrow it, no matter how much you like her!"

Vega groaned aloud but the team snickered with Shepard herself standing up and smiling. "Least you're not like that one fan I had... Run along now April, give us a minute."

As the girl left, Shepard stepped up to Vega with her real hand stretched out for him. "Well, Lieutenant, I can say this for certain. You've got a handle on being a hell of a marine. Maybe one day you'll work with me in the future, but until then you keep up the good work here. Got it?"

Though nervous, the muscular man took the hand offered. "You got it, Captain. Can't wait for that future though, gotta say. Viajes seguros, Shepard."

Finally loaded up and no stowaway, the shuttle left the colony and started their way back with the cache. Garn and Willis chose to have an arm wrestle as Lin looked at her commanding officer. "That Omni-tool you gave her really has a direct line? Thought most personnel devices like those don't have direct contact unless it's a quarter-mile out."

"True, but those ruins have an active relay for communications, Treeya mentioned on the way back its active and how she stays in touch with Liara. Figure she uses that to hit the communications network and get to my terminals." Shepard smiled and just relaxed.

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

White noise...That was all he heard like an explosion had been set off and he had been too close. And darkness, never-ending darkness as far as he could see. Was he floating? No, he couldn't comprehend how he felt at that moment.

"_**Almost time...**_"

That voice. He had heard it before. But where? His eyes opened and all he saw was blurry white, images he wasn't sure what they were. Was it a lab? Two figures came up to his side; one a bald man with a short goatee. The other was a beautiful brunette haired woman with rich sapphire eyes. They looked like characters from a water painting... Blurry for the most part till they drew close.

His eyes wandered; "_**As I told you. Your work is far from done... Naruto...**_" His cerulean stopped at his feet. There stood another figure, but she was crisp and clear as day. An Asari draped in an ethereal white silk dress which hugged her figure she stared directly at him.

But... She looked, off, wrong... Her skin was the deepest shade of red he had ever seen. And her eyes, they were the richest amber with slit irises. Her body was still as a statue, her gaze bored into his own. Neither the bald man nor the beautiful woman seemed to notice or care of the Asari's presence as they work around him.

"_**The one thing they shall fear,**_" The red Asari spoke yet her mouth remained unmoved; "_**Will be you...**_"

Hissing noises were heard as he felt himself start to fall under again, and then he was out and completely unconscious. The woman sighed heavily as she checked everything again, her Omni-tool checking his system. As Naruto laid there, his body still scarred just about everywhere, the woman leaned over the slab he was on. "Next time I tell you your numbers are off, you triple check them, got it, Wilson?"

"Hey, any normal human would be out cold until we chose to wake them with the amount of sedative we're giving this guy! I'm telling you that your blood work isn't coming in right! No one can work immunity to several cocktails of knock out juices in a month, let alone someone whose been dead until two months ago, Miranda." Wilson went to get the tanks refilled that went empty after the scare.

"I'm telling you his blood is unique. There are strings of genetic code I have never seen before, and truth be told whatever blood we received that was classified as human also had some sort of strange variation of sequences that made no sense. Whatever the case may be, you treat the sedatives like candy to Naruto until we're sure he's ready to wake up. Until then, I'll be in my office." Leaving the room, the in-charge woman decided to make a report.

Wilson finished his clean up and refills before heading out on his own. After a few minutes, he went into a dark room and scanned for anything electronic waiting for him and found nothing before turning on his Omni and started recording a message. "This is Gray, reporting in. The process worked, and we've got a live one. Cerberus still has no clue what I'm doing yet, but thankfully I am the one putting in the implants. Requesting orders." He sent the message out on a wave that was undetectable even by Cerberus' paranoid system management standards.

"The implants are up to spec?" The voice of Mirage spoke from the communication.

"Damn straight, Uzumaki won't be made into a Cerberus puppet any time soon." Wilson paused; "Did you get those blood samples I sent?"

"Affirmative. But we are as unsure as you are what to make of them."

The scientist shook his head; "As much as I look into it, I just can't figure it out. Maybe someone over there will figure it out."

"And your other job?" Mirage asked, knowing full well what it was.

"After this and on a slightly more detectable frequency. I'll keep it short and vague, as usual. I know what I'm doing. As long as I can get to the end without any hitch in the plan, we'll have Naruto back and Cerberus will have nothing left." Wilson smirked. "Almost time."

"Remember, once in the shuttle you go to the designated spot and signal, we'll be ready. If you don't arrive, we'll know the escape plan failed. As long as the first plan succeeds, things will be in our favor." Mirage logged off so the frequency band wouldn't be noticed.

Wilson started up the next and a synthesized voice came up. "Your report?"

"All according to plan... Uzumaki will be ready soon." After a quick confirmation, he let the band break and smirked more. "Better be ready, I'm about done with Miranda's bitchy attitude."

"Attitude aside she does show immense intelligence." The voice remarked. "But regardless, fantastic work Wilson."

The man scratched the back of his bald head; "Was far from easy. Bringing back the dead."

"Yet now we know can be done and possibilities are endless."

"Absolutely," Wilson spoke in earnest; "The medical field would be blown out the water by everything here. But that's far from your interest, right sir?"

The voice chuckled; "I admire progress greatly. It means more knowledge, secrets, and someone willing to pay for them."

"I made sure to download every file of the Lazarus project," Wilson smirked; "You won't be disappointed."

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

It was a few months of touch and go, but Emily Shepard was finishing her latest assignment. As her team was assigned to another colony for protection, she was leaving Arcturus station when she got a message from Grim about something. As she read the message her eyes went wide. "Wait... what?" The attached file was audio, and she played it in a hurry.

"I don't make a habit of suicide missions, this doesn't seem like it pays very well. Saving the universe tends to be a heroic task and heroes normally die without pay. So I'd have to decline this one."

"That's one thing Cerberus does better than the Alliance. We know your work and we need your skillset, and we know your price. You'll get a modest sum in advance, but in total, you'll be receiving the amount shown to you right now..." A bit of silence and a surprised huff was heard. "Do we have a deal?"

"... Alright, I'm in. But you can save the advanced pay if you have that so-called Uzumaki help me out with something. If it really is that bastard of a hero in the flesh that sees me, then I'll hop aboard as long as my task gets done."

"Send the details of your mission and I'll be sure to put it in writing. Just know you're not the only one being recruited, expect others. We'll be sending Uzumaki to Omega first thing after he wakes up, be there, and ready to help him get the other two allies, Archangel and the Salarian doctor Solus."

"Got'cha. Don't keep me waiting for too long then, if I don't see him after a few weeks it'll be called off."

The transmission ended. After checking the time of its transmission, Shepard found it to be a week ago. She frowned as she put a call to Hackett. "Better pick up, I want some answers..."

After a few minutes, her Omni-Tool lit up; "Wondered when you'd read that message, Shepard."

"What," Emily spoke slowly; "...the hell is going on... Sir." Emotion bled in her voice.

"To be blunt, Cerberus has resurrected Naruto."

"Impossible!"

The admiral cleared his throat; "So we thought as well. But it is true, we have a man on the inside working alongside the head scientist in charge of bringing Naruto back."

"... Let's say it's possible and not some trick, but if it's Cerberus in charge of it then it will not be the Naruto we all know and care for. They will warp his mind." Shepard frowned more. "Or put some kind of control on him.

"As I said, I have a man inside and we know all those dangers too. Do you think I'd let that happen? Turns out, though, that the head scientist is being ordered not to put any control restrictions on him at all, the head of Cerberus seemingly wants Naruto to be unaltered. That's the word, but we've taken every precaution just in case he's slipping orders under the table. You know I wouldn't let anyone corrupt Naruto if I can help it."

"I know, sir..." She sighed heavily. "Alright, so now what? What do we do from here? Do I go meet this gun for hire?"

"That's more up to you. All we know is that Cerberus is coming up to recruit three individuals from omega. Archangel, information is limited but they say it's the leader of a gang on Omega that's, surprisingly, more vigilante heroics than a criminal organization. This gun for hire, which we have three leads on a name but cannot pin down yet so he's not your best bet. And a Mordin Solus, a Salarian who is rumored to be former STG with what we could only find out as having a degree in biology, all biology, and physiology to be exact. It's up to you who you try to find but as long as you find Naruto with them then it's a win."

"Understood... I think it'd be best to find Archangel if your reports are true then having someone with a mind for helping people is better than a gun for hire or a doctor for whatever Cerberus is doing." After a moment of thought though, she frowned. Shepard remembered something. "I'll be sending you my cybernetic arm for safekeeping."

Hackett was a little surprised to hear that. "You sure that's wise? I don't know what you'll be facing with Cerberus on this matter."

"I'm sure. They've been going into heavy AI research, I don't need any chances they use my arm against me. I haven't been hitting bases of late but I requested an arm that's as bare bones of a prosthetic to control for the purpose of combating AI control. It should be at the Citadel waiting for me. I'll go there, give Anderson my current arm, and get my basic weak arm before running to Omega."

"Alright, but be careful in Omega. Hackett out..."

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

After a quick hop from the Citadel and replaced her arm. A few parting words with her mentor, Emily landed in one of the docks of Omega. Not to her surprise, she was greeted by one of Aria's men who directed her to the queen of the station. Heading through the crowd of the After Life there sat the Asari with the same alluring, arrogant smirk.

"Welcome back Shepard. You... Seem different than when last here." Aria cocked her head.

Emily felt her eye twitch; "Gee, I wonder what it could be... Oh yeah." She unattached her cybernetic arm waving it at the Asari; "Had so much fun here last time I lost an arm." Her sarcasm as thick as the venom in her tone while reattaching her arm.

While the guards tensed, Aria laughed getting up from her seat. "Finally someone with a spine to speak back to me. Your brother was more formal, but that had to be being around my people for as long as he was." She descended the stairs; "So what brings you to Omega this time? If you're looking for your real arm I don't have it. Think a Varren ate it."

"Looking for Archangel, actually. You know anything?"

Aria looked physically confused for a moment before shrugging. "You think I wouldn't know about someone if they made moves on Omega? Of course, I know about them. The real question is what intentions are yours for Archangel?"

Making sure her lesser cybernetic arm was locked in tight; she gave the Asari a smirk. "Depends on how you feel about them. Are they friend or foe of the great Queen Aria?"

"Ah, an opportunist in this case... Well then." Walking up to the strong-willed woman, Aria told it as she saw it. "Archangel... He moved in one day, started taking on small thugs here and there, for the most part, small stuff. Then he started gaining people who looked up to that kind of grit, and now it's a group of people whose sole purpose is to make any criminal element in the station regret their actions. Being Omega, criminal activity is plentiful so it's gotten on quite a lot of nerves since. But he's known well enough that anything with my name on it is off-limits, so truth is told I'm fine with his operations. However, many others see it differently since he's made their lives all a living hell."

"I see... So vigilante justice, but clever enough to keep from your wrath."

"Not the wrath of others, who are bigger players on Omega than you'd think. I hear his time is running short, so if you've got any inclination towards him then you best go now. Blood pack, Blue Suns and Eclipse all are forming together to end him. If you want in, there's a recruitment center starting up in the club. If you want him saved then best go before they finish the job."

Shepard crossed her arms, knowing there was more to this major information dump. "Thank you, Aria. But what am I giving in return?"

The Asari thought for a moment; "If you're lucky a group of vigilantes on your side."

"I get the feeling you wouldn't mind if I...Oh, say, brought down all three groups and the ones leading them in this attack."

At that Aria looked amused; "So we're talking business. Are you asking for a cut?"

"Seems fair if something were to happen to the groups while trying to get to Archangel. More for you." Emily smirked back.

"Well, you piqued my interest," the Asari rubbed her chin; "Tell you what. If you can, and this is a big 'if' remove all the bosses doing this operation. I'll send not only credits but quite a few goodies your way. And by goodies, I mean some tech and weapons." Aria leaned in; "Assuming you can pull this off without the most dangerous assassin in all of Terminus space coming to save your ass again."

"Deal," Emily extended for which was returned by Aria. Both held a strong firm grip as they stared hard at one another. Letting go Emily gave a nod before leaving.

Aria watched her leave. A chuckle escaped her lips; "I'm starting to like her."

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

Heading down to the club again, Emily Shepard looked around. She wasn't exactly told where Archangel was at the current moment, and if the gangs had already started on him then she couldn't waste time roaming the entire station the size of an entire ward wing. Finding the recruitment room, she walked in and was next in line. A Turian was signing up and he left as soon as he was done. Getting called forward, she glared at the Batarian. "I'm not joining up for this expedition. I want to know where Archangel is and I'm going to go after him myself. Tell me about his location, and I might just offer you a thousand credits."

After last time, the face of Shepard was well known to the gang elements throughout the station. The Blue Suns recruitment officer was sweating. "Uh, sure... But I don't know if it's such a good idea."

"One thousand... right here and now, to you only. Just give me the location and stay back here in this room and you'll be set." She produced the chit with the amount. "And if I don't find Archangel, you'll be fucked. So choose wisely and thank your stars for the good fortune."

The Batarian looked at the human and the chit; "Let's see if you can back up that mouth human." He took the chit; "Kima district, don't worry. You'll see it and hear it." He chuckled as the Commander left.

Upon leaving the club she checked her Omni-tool; "Kima district is quite the distance away from here." She muttered before scanning the area and found transport. "Somehow know Aria will be watching. Hope she enjoys the show."

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

Whizzing bullets and explosive firearms were tearing at the defenses of his hideout; Archangel was talking to someone on his Omni-tool. "You know how it is, could always use a few more."

"Then work with what you got, don't stop pulling that trigger until it clicks, son!" The Turian's mandibles twitched in a half-smile as his father continued. "No matter how things are falling apart around you, as long as you have one bullet left you can still get the job done. Understand?"

Looking at the sudden whooshing of a transport taxi, Garrus was almost too distracted to listen but heard the last of his father's words as the car turned on a dime and the cockpit opened as it flew back and at the bridge. "You finish up what you have to do there and get back home to Palaven. We have a lot to sort out."

Just as he finished, Garrus saw the person in the taxi jump out as the vehicle smashed into the bridge after veering towards the group of mercenaries and gang members, causing them to pull back as several were crushed and killed under the suddenly crashed vehicle. The person was human as they landed and rolled on the ridge before jumping up gracefully and looked up at the Turian. They both locked eyes and both sets of eyes went wide, as both recognized the other. The human ran inside and a moment after she did the vehicle suddenly blew up and caused a severe amount of damage that made the entire force against him run back to regroup.

"What the hell was that? Garrus! You alright son!?"

Looking into his Omni-tool, Garrus smirked. "Yeah, dad. Loud and clear. Thank you, for everything. Gotta go now but don't worry, I'll get home as soon as I can." The door he locked opened up to Shepard, huffing in excitement from the crash, the run, and finding her friend again. "The odds just got a whole lot better." He clicked the call off and walked up to the human woman. "A sight for sore eyes, Shepard. I missed you terribly."

Said Turian blinked for a moment as Shepard wrapped her arms around him, "You big oaf! You had me worried sick!" Emily muttered soon feeling Garrus hug her back.

"Sorry about that..." The two detached; "Can fill you in later." Groaning, Garrus took a seat on the floor with Emily beside him. "Right now, kind of have a problem on my hands."

Emily deadpans; "Gee, how could I have guessed with the Blue Suns, Blood Pack, and Eclipse wanting your head." she paused; "I think even Wrex would be impressed. "

That earned her a good chuckle; "Oh he'd be loving this. Know for a fact he hates the Blood Pack leader I've been dealing with."

"Yeah? How do you know that? Which leader is here that's got you in the corner?" Knowing full well that usual leaders were battle-hardened to the point of absurdity sometimes.

"Garm, the bastard is a freak of Krogan nature. Faster regenerating capabilities than any Krogan I have ever seen, and since I've been here I've seen more than any fair share of battle masters. It's been tough keeping I touch with everyone; I get a catch or two on sub-extranet signals. Mentioned Garm before I knew what he was able to do and Wrex told me he doesn't envy the fight I'd be in with this one. Told me not to be careless but take him down without mercy." Garrus shook his head. "Almost had him too, but got swarmed with his reinforcement. Now I'm in even bigger trouble. Enough about my fight here, though. As much as I love the fact you came here and are helping me? I've got to wonder what the sudden urge was to randomly come back to Omega and take on the gangs here just to see me."

Emily did not look at him for a moment before releasing a long sigh; "Got something to tell you."

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

The sound around him felt low, like a hum. The sound grew louder and made more clear of that of an alarm. A low groan escaped his mouth as Naruto felt two warm hands on his cheek. "_**Time to rise Naruto.**_" In a blink, his eyes shot open as he saw the red Asari looking down at him. At that moment everything stopped as he stared up at the woman.

"W-" Naruto coughed as his voice sounded like sandpaper; "Who are you?"

The red Asari said nothing before his blinked and she was gone. The alarms once more blared around him as a voice from an intercom rang out; "Uzumaki, you need to get up!"

**XxX ~ xx ~ XxX ~ xx ~ XxX ~ xx ~ XxX**

**Arch**: ME2 begins…


End file.
